Christmas Pictures

These are some of my favorite Christmas pictures. I will not go in to details since I did that in my earlier posts.
Below is the Christmas story at our Happy Birthday Jesus party.

Emma hamming it up on Christmas Eve!

The soccer goal from G&G Crismon-we set it up today
!

Christmas morning. How did the Slinky already get twisted?

Legos anyone?

Cool dino floor puzzle from Papa Dave!

That is it for now! Happy New Year!

Christmas Morning

Alright, I figured out I can upload one photo at a time. More time consuming, but not impossible! So here are the kids at our house on Christmas morning. We let them all sleep together in the girl's room on Christmas Eve. They slept until about 7:45 am which was pretty good for them considering they were all in the same room and very excited. We all came down to find stockings full of gifts and the unwrapping began.



Below is Sam with his Hot Wheels Triple Stunt track that was sent by Aunt Sheryl and Uncle Randy. AWESOME! He has already had a lot of fun with it and began assembling it himself! Sam also got a bunch of Legos, some new crocs, new hunting boots, another Transformer, another huge art box, a slinky, Hot Wheels, and a Playmobil pirate ship.





Below is Claire with her new suede boots that she really wanted. She also got some new sweaters, headbands, Amer. Girl doll clothes and accessories, hairstyling video, hairstyling chair, shower foam soap (really a highlight!), the Kitt Kittredge movie and a variety of other little things :) Her face does not portray her true excitement about the boots. She has not worn any other shoes since she got them!

Below is Emma with her doll Elizabeth wearing her new glasses, possibly the new favorite accessory! Emma also got some new boots, a new stretchy pants outfit, shower foam soap and a puff, a Barbie and lots of Amer. girl clothes/accessories!

Below is Claire opening her hair styling chair. Thanks LeBarons!

Closing comments on Christmas 2008:

- Blitzen our new dog was our best gift!

-This was the first year we did not sit out cookies for Santa. No one mentioned it :(

-Daddy got a duck club membership and a pair of hunting safety goggles

-Mommy got a new digital camera

-Daddy makes a yummy Christmas morning breakfast

-I love Christmas morning with our family in our jammies

-We spent the afternoon in Edwardsville at the Kampwerth's house. Very fun!

-We spent less time this year than in years past undoing twisty ties holding on Barbie's appendages! I am very thankful for toys with less "packaging".

-I am still not sure who really believes in Santa anymore. I think Sam does, but I am pretty sure the girls have figured things out. I am mixed on how I feel about this.

-I am so glad that even though I did not have anything to unwrap this Christmas morning that I still felt so lucky to have Jesus in my heart. He has given me the ultimate gift of eternal life and it fills me with peace and joy :) I feel so blessed.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Christmas without pictures!

A lot has happened since the Shrinky Dink tree here at the Smout house, but Blogger has not been happenin' if you know what I mean. For some reason the Blogger site has not allowed me to upload photos since my last post. So in an effort to not fall too far behind on my blogging I am going to bore you with my memories of our Christmas 2008. I will try to post pictures later when the Blogger guys get back from their holiday!!

Tues. Dec. 23rd
Earlier in the day the kids and I made a Happy Birthday Jesus cake to celebrate that night. We have had a Happy Birthday Jesus party annually for 6 years, but this year we decided to take a year off and just do this tradition with our own family. We made a chocolate double layer cake with white frosting and sprinkles! We had a nice dinner and as Scott and I were cleaning up dinner the kids disappeared to the upstairs. After about 15 minutes they shouted down, "Were ready!" Ready for what I thought. "Were ready for the Happy Birthday Jesus Party! Meet us in the living room for the Bible story, okay?!" As we entered the living room we saw Mary kneeling (Emma), a shepherd (Sam), a narrator with her Bible (Claire) a baby Jesus (baby Ki Ki) in a Rubbermaid plastic manger and an angel taped to the window that Emma had made at school. We sat on the couch as Claire read the Christmas story to us and Emma and Sam sort of acted out the story. It was precious. It really directed my focus on why we celebrate Christmas and showed me how excited they were to put together this "party" themselves. After the show we all put candles on the cake, sang, blew them out and enjoyed our yummy cake together. And by the way, the best part about the show was their costumes. Claire was the costume designer. Let's just say Mary wore Victoria's Secret (don't tell Joseph) and the Shepherd was complete in terry cloth robe! So cute!

Wed. Dec. 24th - Christmas Eve!
"Are we going to Aunt Cathy's yet?...Are we going to Aunt Cathy's yet?...Are we going to Aunt Cathy's yet?" Was the question I was asked all day. Growing up Christmas Eve was always the big night and my family has continued to exchange gifts on Christmas Eve. So we waited for Scott to come home, we got ready although the girls had been in Christmas velvet and snowflake tights since about 9am, and we headed to Aunt Cathy's house. We enjoyed a nice dinner of ham, veggies wrapped in puff pastry (yum!), potatoes, salad, bread and of course some pie options. And when you have options you must try them all, right? It was a really small crowd this year. So small in fact that my kids got to sit at the adult table in the dining room! It was G&G Crismon, Papa Dave, Aunt Tracy and Uncle Chris, our family and Aunt Cathy. After dinner the present unwrapping began with the kids all being the center of the show and the center of the room! The girls got a lot of American Girl doll clothes and art stuff. Emma got some Tinkerbell tennis shoes which came with a make up set and two little pots of pixy dust. Even if she never wears the shoes the pixy dust has been well worth the price of the gift-she loves it! They also got some Klutz books teaching them how to do paper twirling and make fashion clothing out of paper. Sam got a dinosaur floor puzzle, a golf game and a long awaited Transformer. They all got the Horton Hears a Who movie. And like always we went home with a van full of stuff. How does this happen we ask ourselves every year. Oh to be a kid at Christmas again!!

Shrinky Dink Tree

Yesterday we went to meet Scott at work for lunch. We needed to get out of the house. I had several errands to run that were not that fun so I told the kids after the errands we would go to Michael's to get the stuff we needed for our Shrinky Dink project. A mom in Sam's class recently gifted the teacher a very neat Shrinky Dink reindeer where each of the students had made an ornament. I thought I could maybe take something like this on with my kids. I could never have been creative enough to think up this on my own!

So each one of my kids got to draw a Christmas object on Shrinky dink paper with a Sharpie. Then we baked them, tied on a ribbon hanger and then hung them on our little tree. It was so much fun, really!

Sam, Claire and Emma with their little tree

Here is our tree. We had reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes, stockings, nativity scenes, ornaments, candy canes, presents and angels.

Another Fun Sunday!

Last week our friend Kerri gave us a gingerbread house kit! I love gingerbread houses. I love to make them, look at them and eat them! This afternoon after church, dog training and room cleaning we got to assemble the long awaited gingerbread house! This is a good mommy activity. Daddy was hunting anyway! That seems to be a common theme doesn't it? It was a great kit. All I had to do was mix up the icing with an egg white and some lemon juice (to make it extra sticky). Then we put it in an icing bag and got started. Here are some pics:

Getting started on our A-frame house!

The finished product! Emma put the M&M's on the Christmas tree for ornaments. All the kids got to participate in the roof. I did the piping on the roof. They did a nice job of sharing all the jobs after some initial fighting :)

A close up of our A-frame gingerbread house!

When Daddy got home from hunting I started on my first try at cooking duck. Scott had brought home 5 or 6 ducks earlier in the week and after scouring the internet for what I thought sounded like a good recipe I purchased all of the ingredients and we decided Sunday night would be the night I would cook it. So, he entertained the kiddos while I went to town on making Thyme-Roasted duck breast with orange-wine sauce!! We did not eat until 7pm, but it was delicious! I can hardly believe I am saying that. It must be because I took so much time in making it! The kids went back for seconds, maybe that was because we were eating at 7pm! Either way I am going to take it as a compliment.

Christmas Program

Last night was the CCS Christmas program. We finally got really good seats! We were there about 45 minutes early, but it was worth it! The program was well done. It focused on worship rather than performance. Claire got to participate in the live nativity at the end where two of her classmates were Mary and Joseph.

This is the kids at home before the program. Emma was not exactly being cooperative with pictures so I told her that I just wanted a picture of Claire and Sam (a little mommy psychology). Then as I am about to take a loving picture of Claire and Sam guess who pops their head in the corner with a toy gun in her hands!!
The kids with Blitzen

Sam singing "Go Tell It On The Mountain" with friend Anika

Theo, Anna, Emma, Vero and Zoe

Rachael and Claire

Winter Wonderland

Today I made plans to go with our friend Kerri and her kids to the Tilles Park Winter Wonderland. This is a light display that has been in St. Louis for a long time. I have not been through it in at least 10 years. I used to remember that the line was always very long so Kerri and I planned to meet at 5:30 pm and then try to get in line car to car and then follow each other to the Galleria food court where we would meet Scott and George for dinner with the kids. It sounded like a good plan.

5:15 I load everyone up, get Blitzen in his crate, go the bank so I have $ to pay.
5:25 We park at the remote location where we are going to meet Kerri
5:26 Emma cries because she wants water. "I am SOOOOOOOO thirsty mom". Not to mention hungry and tired.
5:27 Kerri calls and says she is stopped in traffic at Clayton and Ballas--those West County folks.
5:27 Emma cries because she is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO thirsty
5:28 We begin playing the guess what animal I am thinking about game.
5:32 Kerri calls. The traffic is moving. And she has candy canes!
5:33 Scott calls. Will we be at the Galleria by 6? no way!
5:34 We discuss characteristics of mammals.
5:35 Kerri calls again. She is close and she has water!
5:38 Scott calls. We make plans to meet at 6:30.
5:44 Kerri arrives with water and candy canes and we travel to the winter wonderland!
5:50We arrive to find NO LINE!!
5:51-6:12 We listen to Christmas music, enjoy the lights and RELAX! Here are the comments from the back seat:
Emma: "This is so beautiful"
Sam: "All of my JK friends are going to wish they could see this!"
"Daddy should have come with us."
Claire: "How do they make that guy look like he is skiing down the hill?"

6:30 Luck out with parking spots at the Galleria, arrive at food court and minutes later the daddy's arrive!! Yeah for Daddy's!

We enjoyed a kid friendly dinner of Johnny Rockets, Japanese, Chinese and cheesesteak sandwiches. Then the kids all went to visit Santa and we walked and talked from one end of the mall to the other. It turned out to be a great night. The lights are truly magical. I am so glad that we went! When we pulled up to our house it seemed so boring. I think we need some lights. I better get Scott on that tomorrow!

Blitzen update

So for those of you who are wondering, we do still have the dog. Surprisingly, things seem to be working out. We have had Blitzen for 9 days. He continues to get easier every day and sometimes I even forget he is here. He is a really good dog. He is not a morning dog and I like that! He is currently being trained on the "Invisible Fence" and once he gets that it will be so much easier. The kids are having a ball with him. He is great at fetch and they love it! And for the 9 days we have had him they have willingly fed him, watered him, walked him, taken him out to potty and even picked up poop! Let's hope they keep it up!!

And Scott really LOVES the dog too :)