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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 Mom came over on NYDay to help us celebrate Samuel.  I made homemade mac&cheese (his FAVORITE) and Nana brought him a special cupcake and GUM.  He also got a magna doodle, a movie, and an angry bird!  He's pretty spoiled.

This kid is such a joy!  He's quirky and funny and makes me smile every day.  EVERY.day.  He loves vitamins (insists on having some every morning), protein shakes, suckers, snacks and gum (lots of GUM!).  He's huge (90% in height) with super long legs.  He has blonde curly hair.  We paint his nails with horrible tasting polish to try to get him to stop sucking his thumb.  He still naps on days that he doesn't go to school.  He is not super friendly or social (he's my only shy guy), but has a heart of gold for those he knows and loves.  The other day I put a picture in a frame incorrectly and said "I'm such a kook!" and he looked at me seriously and said, "Mom, you are NOT a kook – you are beautiful!".  He loves his momma and I love him right back!  He also loves the dog – despite his many attempts to torture her – he talks about her to everyone and routinely prays for her.  Right now he loves reading his scriptures every night before bed (New Testament stories).  He rides his bike like a maniac.  He dresses himself – in all sorts of color combinations – usually in shorts that are too small and shirts that are too big.  His giggle is contagious.  And his cries are obnoxiously loud (and he likes to point his head to heaven and just wail!).  And my favorite – anytime Derek or I leave for anything he yells HUG!  or KISS!! and runs to say goodbye to us.  Love that boy of mine!

Derek then had a low-key birthday with grilled chicken (his favorite) and ice cream.  He got monogrammed cufflinks from me – just for fun, and gift cards from parentals!  The next weekend we celebrated him and Michael Lee's birthdays with a bunch of friends at Brio for a fun dinner.  These are great people!

Chappells, Millers (A&M), Enlows, Gordons, Millers (K&D), Sivleys, Lees, Smiths (not pictured: Halls, taking picture)

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 over this show starting up again.  I taped it last night and watched as soon as homeschooling was done and Samuel had gone down for his nap today.  I LOVE this series.  It's magical and beautiful and wonderful and lots of other -fuls too, if I could just think of some.  Mr. Bates and Anna, Lord and Lady Grantham, Mary, Cybill and Edith (poor, silly Edith), Matthew Crowley, Carson, O'Brien, Mrs Pattmore, etc, etc.  Really great show.  So glad it's back.  It adds a little spice to my January.

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 good!  Fun to be with this group (Hicken's, Crawford's, Dalebout's and Tanner's) and reminisce on 10 years of NYE's together.

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 rock climbing – no fear.  It was fun learning how to "belay" for the them too.

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 and pain and suffering.  BUT…alas, all that is behind us now. 

Anyway…while we were spending quality time with our new friend Ilir (a very nice Serbian gentlemen) at Bank of America, my Dad and Christy generously offered to take the boys for the day (thank heavens!).  They went to the SeaLife Aquarium at Grapevine Mills, ate lunch and headed to Bass Pro Shops.  They also took them fishing!  And they got to spend some time with Mike, Liv and Reid.  I'm pretty sure this day was considered "heaven" for my boys.  The only pictures I have are ones that Caleb took on his new camera, which mostly include inanimate objects, but I was able to find a few of real people and animals that I thought would make a good remembrance of that great and terrible day (great = them, terrible = us).

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 our house with no plans and no food.  We ordered Pei Wei on-line and sent the men to pick it up.  We played games (Scattergories and Spontuneous) and laughed A LOT.  As usual it doesn't take anything special to make fun memories with this crowd.  We also exchanged Christmas gifts.  Now if we could only convince those H's to stay….

Check out the fortunes from the fortune cookies…how did they know?!

And this is what happens when you say "a silly one" to this group:

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, whom we named "Snowball" , to join us for the Christmas season.  And he did not disappoint!  The boys were not allowed to touch him during the day, and at night he would do all kinds of crazy things to get our attention.  The boys didn't really buy into his "watchful eye" story, but Caleb and Samuel woke up every morning and the first thing they did was hunt for the elf.

Here are some things Snowball could be found doing…

1. playing Operation with Santa
2. hanging out on the Christmas tree
3. taking a ride in Caleb's backpack (with a new pencil)
4. bringing us new Christmas candy and using them as a pillow
5. performing Cirque du Soleil from our ceiling fan cord
6. bringing donuts (and sneaking a bite)
7. turning our milk green (the kids are convinced it tasted different!)

8. keeping a watchful eye on the little boys from the marlin above their beds
9. reading "Good Night Moon" on Sam's bed
10. toilet papering our Christmas tree!!  (a family favorite)
11. leaving a note for the boys
12. bringing a very fun Christmas puzzle

And my favorites…helping us remember the real reason for the season.

Now Snowball is with Santa resting and working until he can come visit us again next December.  Fun times!

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 a great gift.

3.  Exchanging gifts bought and created with love – it's so fun to share gifts with each other.  One of my favorite exchanges was the "favorites thing" white elephant we did with the sibling adults – we had to choose a favorite thing that was $10 or under and we traded them white elephant style.  Lots of laughs on that one (especially when Mark ended up with earrings in the end).  I also loved seeing the joy on Caleb's face as he gave gifts – he was especially proud of the red "diamond" earrings he bought for Nana and the wool clutch purses he embellished for his aunts.

The bottom line is…we're some of the lucky ones…to be surrouned by SO.much.love.

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 get them, and apparently this year they couldn't wait any longer.  Luckily, Santa came (despite my insistent arguments that he wouldn't – they win, as usual).  And he brought an arsenal of weapons for the big boys…air soft pistols – a rifle and a pistol for each.  And he brought a scooter for Samuel.  All boys got what they requested and all boys were happy and thrilled.

We had orange cinnamon rolls for breakfast with a breakfast casserole and leftover jello salad.  And then we opened more gifts.  Some of the gift highlights:

Jacob – a b'ball goal for his bedroom, a reading light, a helicopter (from M&A), a Kindle (from Papa C and Mimi), a canvas of him in football uniform (from M&O), binoculars (from Nana & Pops) and books (from G&G)

Caleb – a Rangers pillow pet, an Ipod shuffle, a helicopter (from M&A), a camera (from Papa C & Mimi), a karaoke machine (from Nana & Pops), hexbugs (from G&G), invention kit/book (from Audra and Grandma), a fishing tackle box (from Mike & Liv)

Samuel – a giraffe pillow pet, an etch-a-sketch, a monkey robot (from M&A), a monogrammed backpack (from M&O), a play tunnel (from Nana & Pops), a vet kit (from Papa C & Mimi), a pillow pet and Cars jammies (from G&G) and light up cars and t-shirts (from Audra)

Mer – new perfume (picked out by all my guys)

Der – noise canceling headphones

Christmas morning is always fun and cozy around here – I love spending this time as a family.  Caleb was so sweet this year – getting (or making) gifts for each of the women in the family plus his brothers.  He was so thoughtful.  Jacob found a little box for me that he stained and gave as a jewelry box.  I'm so spoiled – these boys are so good to me.

After all of our festivities we got dressed and headed to sacrament meeting at 1:00.  Audra and Paul met us there and it was fun to see all of our friends on Christmas Day.  It was especially nice to partake of the sacrament and reflect on the life of our Savior.