These two celebrate birthdays two days apart – January 1st and January 3rd: This year Samuel turned 5 and Derek turned 41. We celebrated Sam's birthday with a big party in early December – you can read all about it HERE.  So, on NYE we took them out for a b'day lunch at Cheddar's.  Then…

I half expected all of the street lights to go out and Facebook to shut down last night around 8 pm.  Why?  Because "Downton Abbey – Season 2" was premiering on PBS!  Doesn't everyone love this show as much as I do?!  Derek laughs at me – but I was as giddy as a schoolgirl…

As tradition requires, we spent another NYE at the Hicken's!  Sadly this will be our last one there, at this house at least.  It was nice and quiet and casual…with more than enough food.  Since we had church the next day at 9 am, we watched the ball drop at 11 pm and called it…

With Derek off all week after Christmas, we got to spend some quality time as a family.  One of our favorite days was going rock climbing at "Canyons" and seeing a movie ("We Bought a Zoo" – very cute story, but too much language for a PG for my taste).  The boys are good at…

I fell victim to a very sneaky phishing scam over the Christmas break – one that allowed people in Croatia to get a hold of our bank passwords and account numbers…one that gave Derek and I a 4-hour date in the bank office one day.  One that caused a whole lot of grief and time…

We resolved to spend as much time as possible with the Hicken's over the holidays, with their upcoming move being so imminent.  We had planned on going bowling and then having dessert back at our house.  But as luck would have it the bowling alley we tried was FULL and so we headed back to…

I was reluctant about the commitment level of this cute elf that Santa sends to visit homes and check in on children.  I had seen of his crazy antics on pinterest and other blogs though and anyone that clever is allowed to be part of the Smith Christmas, you betcha!  So we invited our elf,…

It's always a treat when my Dad & Christy come to town.  This year they drove up the day after Christmas and we all gathered at Liv and Mike's for fajitas and gifts and time together. 

We headed over to Mom's, after church, for our annual family gathering.  The highlights, for me, were clear: 1.  Celebrating the babies' first Christmas – Reid and Graham are such blessings to our family – and we adore them. 2.  Having Grandma Haymond and Grandma Kake with us – their love and their presence is…

We woke to the sounds of "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In" being sung in the bedroom above us as the boys marched in unison in an effort to try to wake us (true story!) at 5:45 am.  Jacob was texting us too. The rule is they stay in their rooms 'til we come…