And know we have.......................... the PICTURES!!!

Dad took me out to breakfast before school.
The Adorable presents.
Spencer and his yarn.
David and his hugs.
And more hugs.

My friends party.(Left to right) Emma, Me, Sadie, and Amanda. Meagan couldn't make it
My made-crazy-by-Spencer family party.
The little owl-case sewing kit from the Cannons.
The Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary; Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. I already have the first three books in this series. The fifth and final book comes out in March. YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!
More party-made-crazy-by-Spencer with Grandma Udall and Abby.

My Brownies with the funny 11. Thank you everybody for the wonderful, amazing Birthday!!!

Well since I'm 11 . . .

...........I might as well write about it all. (by the way I did a post a lot like this last year) I had a great birthday and I got some Wonderful presents from all my family and friends, Including: The fourth book in a series called Fablehaven from Grandma Cathy and Poppy King, a bunch of fun things from Grandma Udall, a scarf from Laura and Bret a picture I have wanted forever, a desk set, and a pair of Cute shoes, all from Mom and Dad. I also received a wonderful story titled Wintertime and a card from Grandma Rosie, Poppy Dave, Tim, and Matthew. Thank you everybody for such a Terrific Birthday!!!

Winter

Our first snowman constructed at our new house.

A couple weeks later, Michael helped Spencer build a similar snowman on our back deck. It was fun to look at but would kind of freak us out each time we'd open the blinds and see a face staring back at us.
We've also found a new favorite sledding spot up American Fork Canyon (near our house) at Tibble Fork reservoir. This is looking back down the canyon at the back of Mt. Timpanogos.

Snowballs were also thrown.

And certain people sulked in the car part of the time.

But we had a great time.

I'm not a huge fan of cold, but with this kind of scenery,
I can handle it.

BYU vs, Eastern Washington, Dec 2009

Each year during Christmas break we try to take the kids to a BYU basketball game. The crowds are smaller while the students are gone and it's a lot easier to get good seats. Especially when they are playing the likes of Eastern Washington. Ten minutes into the game the score was 31-2 for BYU.
Before we left home Emma made Spencer a sign to hold up. The greatest moment was when Spencer made one of the Jumbo-Tron shots holding up his sign. Priceless. (Helps when the crowd isn't that big.)One of the promotions of the night was free chocolate cake from Magleby's if BYU scored over 80 points when you took in your ticket stubs. Our kids got so excited when the score was well over 80, but David got so mad when we didn't stop for the cake on the way home from the game. (It was already a late kid night.) Speaking of which, what did we do with those ticket stubs?

The fight song.
Can you tell that Spencer knows that cougar growl well?

(When he was 3 we'd have to sing the BYU fight song for him, just so he could do the growl at the end.)

It was quite a party.
Final score 91-38.
Nice.

Random kid sayings; mostly about football

Apologies to those who've heard some of these already:

When a babysitter came to our new house for the first time, the kids were telling her its different features. David yelled, “And there’s another kitchen downstairs – in real life!” (I think he was distinguishing from the play kitchen also down there)

Spencer said, “I like to watch men AND women playing basketball.” (he’s been to a BYU women’s game). Emma questioned his manhood and he reiterated it. Then he said, “But if women played football, I wouldn’t watch it because there would be no touchdowns and no passing because women can’t throw.” (I will take no blame for this because he has seen me play football catch with Catherine dozens of times).

When we pulled into the parking lot of the rec center, Emma said “Boise State flag spotted!” – there was one on a nearby truck. When we were walking out, Emma and Catherine separately ran up to tell me, “There was a guy wearing an Auburn sweatshirt back there!” And then Spencer started repeating it.

Spencer said that a girl in his kindergarten class has two brothers on the BYU football team. I dismissed this as braggadocio. Then the kids were watching the replay of the last drive of the BYU-Oklahoma game (which they have watched four times, and I have only watched once) and Emma saw the name “Brown” on Terrence Brown and Spencer said, that’s Noelle Brown’s brother. And then I remembered that he has a brother named Rhen who never plays. So he was right, and they figured it out themselves.

BTW, he was freaking out watching that drive for the fourth time in two days. He’d get all upset when there was an incomplete pass or penalty. “I want them to score a touchdown!” And then after the touchdown: “I just KNEW that number six was going to catch it!”

He is also now obsessed with watching the coin toss. We watched it for the Rose Bowl and then he asked to watch it on other games. I had recorded the national championship game and started it with the kickoff. But he came in and freaked out until I rewound it to the coin toss (and then his mom came in and asked to rewind it to the Josh Groban national anthem ). Anyway, Saturday morning he came into my room holding a Japanese coin I had given him – he held it out and said, “This is poop.” And I was confused. And then he turned it over and said, “And this means get dressed first.” And then he tossed it, looked at it, and said, “Get dressed first” and walked into his room. (and then pooped after he got dressed).

Finally, this one doesn’t make much sense if you don’t know the context, but I had the high school all-america game on Saturday and during breaks some of the players were announcing which college they were going to by choosing that school’s baseball hat from an array of four or five. He knew that one of the quarterbacks was coming to BYU and kept asking “when is he going to choose his hat?” I told him he had already announced it so he wasn’t going to choose one. Freak out: “I wanna see him choose his hat!” Me: “He chose a long time ago.” S: “Why didn’t you record it? Wahh!”

For FHE we were acting out what we are thankful for. Most of it was the usual, family, food, bed, pork, you know. Then Catherine sits there moving her hands around, doing the same complicated motions over and over. We couldn’t guess it and finally made her tell us: “I’m grateful for organizing things.”

While I was talking to an older man about the BYU game the day before, Spencer said:
“Yeah, BYU won versus the Air Force Academy, 38-21. First it was 3 to zero, then it was 9 to 0, then it was 10 to 0, then it was 16 to 0, then it was 17 to 0, then it was 17-6, then it was 17-7. . .” and on through all the scoring. It was pretty freaky.

Christmas Recap

We had some great family time this Christmas Season!

Here are the annual Christmas Eve festivities at Grandma & Grandpa's house.





Here the kids are singing "This is the Season" from the Primary songbook, which has become a bit of a tradition.

Christmas PJ's from Grandma with the Cannon cousins.

After the festivities in Salt Lake, we went home to hang our stocking by the chimney with care and settle down for a long winter's nap in our own beds. (Makes ALL the difference in the world the next day.) Our children actually slept through the night, past 7:00 in the morning!

Traditional Christmas Morning Stair Picture.

And they're off.
The leader of the pack.

Here come the rest.

The loot.

The kids have been so excited that we have a fireplace this Christmas. I have to admit, I've been kind of excited about that myself. Gifts were not over the top this year. Lots of homemade presents too. We also opened the door to our new house on Christmas morning symbolic of the best gift of the year!

The long-awaited Transformers. I bought these at Walmart a couple of weeks before Christmas and forgot to hide them before Spencer got home from school. So he was pretty mad when I pounced on him and yanked the bag out of his hands when he discovered them. Fortunately patience paid off and here they are.

Christmas breakfast combining Smart and Udall family traditions.

And English traditions with Christmas Crackers - that's where the crowns come from.
That afternoon we had the Udall side (including Grandma Udall and Uncle Dan) over for Christmas dinner. This marked the first time we've ever stayed home the whole of Christmas Day. It was VERY fun and wonderful to have the space to host everyone!

The kids got to see every single one of their cousins over Christmas break. Here is cute Norah Bowen with David in a cool picture I shamelessly stole from Laura. The John Smarts also came to visit from Idaho and stayed with us for a few days. How I managed to take no pictures, I don't understand. We were just having too much fun I guess.Aunt Lynn also stayed with us for a few days both before and after Christmas. Thanks to everyone for making the Christmas holiday such a fun one for our family. We feel so blessed to be related to such awesome people. And we definitely missed the ones we didn't get to see in person. Lots of love to all and to all a good night!

The Lights at Temple Square

This year we made it up to Salt Lake to see the fabulous lights at Temple Square!

To add to the excitement, we took the Trax train downtown. (Also to avoid the prospect of the non-existent parking spots downtown.) Our kids thought the train was the greatest. David was MUCH more excited that he looks in the picture. Here he's trying to perfect his Ralphie impersonation.

And to increase the level of fun even further, we invited our Sorenson cousins to come along.

Here we are in the world famous Tabernacle.
Partly to thaw our fingers and toes.

When I took this picture of Spencer and his cousin Mary I said, "I'll take your picture and we'll send it to Grandma Rosie!" and Mary looked at me very quizzically and said, "How does Spencer know my Grandma Rosie?" What a small world!

Catherine and Madeleine

Emma and Beth

The reflecting pool in front of the Temple was so pretty.Lights of the Temple reflected in the water.

Thanks again for braving the cold with us Sorensons!

For our Grandmas (and anyone else who's interested)

November piano recital.
(November is always duets.)

Also in November Catherine won an award for her photography entry in the Reflections contest at school. Her entry will now go onto the District Level! Way to go Cath!