'twas the Sunday before Christmas

Trying to get a good picture of everyone in their nice Sunday Christmas clothes. Always a challenge, but we try anyway.

David rebelling:

The annual Gingerbread House

I am slowly getting caught-up on our December pictures.

Here is making the annual gingerbread house. I loved making gingerbread houses growing up, but my mom was the one who had the frustration of making and cutting out the gingerbread pieces, making the frosting and trying to hold the structure together, sometimes burning her fingers using hot molasses. I still remember this angst and wasn't ever too excited to fill the mother-role in gingerbread house construction.

Then, along came gingerbread house kits!! Paul gave us one two years ago and we loved it. And a new tradition was born. I love the ones from Costco. Ten dollars and all I have to do is open the wrapper and it's ready to go!

We are definitely not in it for the intricate beauty, but for the fun (and the sugar), so I just let the kids run with it and try to keep them from eating too much of the candy right away.

It snowed!

I have got so behind on any blogging this time of year. So I may just randomly post pictures for a while, with no commentary. Life is BUSY! And now we get to shovel this stuff, so it just got busier. :)

Tada!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have some very exciting news. My school had a geo bee. There were 1or 2 kids from each 4,5 and
6 grades and I came in 2nd place! I am so proud of myself! Aren't you????????????

Controlling Spencer's Body

I don't know if Amy will get a chance to post this before we forget so I (Michael) will, although this is secondhand for me. As many of you have witnessed, Spencer gets restless/mad/wants attention and pushes/hits/kicks/head butts the nearest person. Amy got after him about that in one instance and he said, "It wasn't me - it was my bones!" Which prompted a discussion about how he is responsible for controlling his own body. So another day I heard the usual yelling about Spencer hitting someone and then Emma's encouraging voice: "Control your body, Spencer, you can do it."

So that's the new catch-phrase: Control your body. And he talks about being a good boy and controlling his body.

Then one morning he was having a hard time holding back so he came upstairs and painted a picture of a humpback whale. He said, "When I'm having a hard time controlling my body, I do an art project."

So now when I get home from work I see all kinds of makeshift origami, water color masterpieces, and drawings of "mouses." And he got some special markers at a scrapbook wholesale clearance (it helps to have two scrapbook marketers in the family/friend sphere), which was good for another day of healthy alternatives to hitting.

Then at Costco, Amy said, he was frustrated about something and restless and said to himself, "I need to do an art project!" We hope he continues to be this self-aware as he grows and that he can continue to come up with interventions for himself.

Finally posting pictures of Smart Family Thanksgiving

All the Smart grandkids in one place!

Playing outside before dinner. And in the bounce house.Spencer hanging his leaf on the Gratitude Tree.Suppa' time!

Mary ready to go out for the official lighting ceremony. :)

Catherine's pictures

These are the pictures that I entered in a program called Reflections. It got a honarable mention. All the pictures except the one of the waterfall and the river were taken in my neighborhood.

Outings with Dad

Thanks to Amy for posting these photos so I can finally get around to writing about our outings. One recent Sat. I thought it would be the last nice Sat. of the fall, so we made time to go up the canyon. You can see the leaves were already down but it was nice and warm! The kids reminded me of our tradition of going to "the rock in the river."

Now David is too big to tell him that he can't get on it, too. Catherine took some really cool pictures of the river from the rock that you'll be seeing soon. At the playground by the campsite there was brand new wood chips! All the better for burying your brother and dumping on your dad's head.

On Oct. 25 the three older kids had their turn to go to a BYU football game. I picked UNLV because I thought it would be a blowout and essentially over at halftime so it wouldn't matter that we had to leave. Except it came down to the final play. But Emma and Spencer had it after the first drive. They remembered that LAST YEAR I had told them we could get hot chocolate. But in keeping with the nice warm weekends this fall, it was about 70 (I had to put sunscreen on them) so there was no one selling hot chocolate. That wasn't a good enough excuse for them, though. We left after watching the band at halftime. BYU won.


Catherine is really starting to understand the rules and likes to watch. She took this picture of us. She got to go to a game with just me earlier in the season - I'll post those photos when I get them off my phone.

Also, Spencer didn't get lost this time :)
Since I was wearing a hat, everyone decided they had to have a hat as part of their "gear," too. Even though the only one Emma could find was red

Piano Recital

The girls had first piano recital of the year. This time they were preparing for their ensemble (duet) festival. This was Emma's first recital and she played with her teacher. We were really proud of both of the girls. They did really well in their festival too.
This guy, on the other hand, was another story.

Adendum

A few more of Spencer's gems that we forgot in the last post:

Why does school teach us about the earth and letters?

How did Heavenly Father make us?

Why did Heavenly Father make 2 moons for Mars and only 1 for us?

Why is there such thing as girls underwear in this world?


And to go with this post. Another night-time discovery of Spencer. When I walked in the room I really didn't know where he was. :) Notice the pile of discarded pajamas. Also notice a Richard Scary book - they are his favorites.

Enquiring mind wants to know

Spencer has been full of questions lately. Just suddenly he'll ask some random question - half of which I have no answer for. But it's so funny to see the wheels turning in his head. So I finally started writing some of them down. Here's a few:

Why do dinosaurs always live by volcanoes? Oh, is it because they eat lava?

Why does Heavenly Father make thunder when it's raining?

How does water get clean?

How does a shoemaker make shoes?

How does Heavenly Father make vitamins in food?

Is there a vitamin that can make me run faster than Catherine?

How do you make water?

How do you make milk?

Do cows have machines in their stomachs?

Why is it called 'gray'?

Why do they have to bring the mom some food after they have a baby? (Like Jenni in the hospital.)

Why do people store food for the winter?

How old are Dads? (michael: "34") Why?

Does Jesus celebrate Christmas?

How do people make legos?

Why do ninjas (he says injas) wear masks?

How do Chinese people cut-up their food?

Do Chinese people wash their hands?

Why do they say "Happy Halloween"? Is it because they don't want to say "Mad Halloween?"



And one more recent quote: "Mom, did you know 'peeps' (our word for #1) are like ghosts because they both go through things . . . like my pants.