Christmas with the Smiths

Had a wonderful, relaxing Christmas this year! Every Christmas is more fun as Justin gets more and more into it. This year was no exception. It was the year with my family in Waco.

Justin with Aunt Elise on Christmas Eve

My family in matching PJs

Just the ladies in their PJs

Roxy is super-psyched on Christmas morning

Justin opening his machine gun from our Doha buyer. I think my entire family had more fun with this toy over any other. Brings out the boy in everyone. We put a scarf around Aaron's head which made him resemble someone from the Taliban.

Justin on his big wheels from Shane & Kaki. Like I've said in other posts, he was a big helper with everyone's gifts.

Drum set from Birdie. His first real lefty (yep, a true lefty golfer) golfclubs from Papa Snuf.

We had a Happy Birthday Jesus cookie cake. We of course had to sing happy birthday to Him.

Justin blowing out Jesus' candle. We had to sing this over and over again. He still asks everyday where Baby Jesus went in our neighborhood - makes for some interesting explanations everytime mommy tries to explain that Jesus really is everywhere.

Grandma & Grandpa (aka G.G. & G-pa, great-grandparent style)

My mom had Justin at his own little table. He enjoyed his own section to eat in peace.

Hanging with Aunt Kaki

Someone was trying to put off going to bed. Here he is doing his sick 'em bears with matching hats.

He kept going...

...and going....

...and going until I said, "No more, time for bed!"

Birdie took Justin to go watch some exotic animals feed only a mile from our house. Notice the moose in the background.



A zebra was another animal (thanks Kaki for the photos).


Can't believe the Christmas holidays have come and gone and it's already January! So thankful to have had such quality time with all the fam. It's so fun and chaotic at the same time. Thanks Mom & Dad for a great visit!

Roxy's Birthday Party

So before you totally roll your eyes at this post, I haven't done anything special for Roxy, my precious peke-a-poo, on her birthday since she was a year old. We were living with the Junods at that time and I threw a mini party for my "only child". For those that don't know the history, I grew up in a family who did not have dogs. I rolled my eyes at people who treated their dogs like people. In comes my marriage to a baseball minor leaguer and the constant aloneness of the wives when the men were gone for weeks on end. Roxy was purchased and my new best friend was born. She was there when I had no one else in Florida.

Back to this post. I now have a 2 year old boy who loves a birthday party. So we had a mini birthday party meal for Roxy. She never gets real food, so this was a treat for her. I was going to go to Three Dog Bakery and get her a cake like the first birthday, but I think they closed. So on her 6th birthday she got some bread and cheese in dog bone cut outs and some homemade sloppy joe mix. She was salivating as she stared at the plate.



Birthday girl - she doesn't like wearing things but I needed something in place of a hat

Justin blowing out the candle after singing the birthday song. I love this photo with Roxy licking her chops.


Watching her eat her "real" food.


We made strawberry cupcakes for us humans to eat. I purposefully only iced them as we ate them - if they are all iced then I eat like 4 a day.


Happy Birthday, Roxy-loo!

Baby Carter

This sweet baby boy was born right before the new year! Carter Michael Hall decided to make his entrance on December 30th. I fondly like to call him the miracle baby - the 4th child to the Hall family with 3 older sisters. They were in some desperate need of some blue in that house. He was so alert and seemed so much older than a newborn when I got to meet him.


Sweet baby boy


I know am still needing to post about Christmas. But it's so much easier to do a post with only two photos. Looking forward to seeing how this little guy adjusts to having four mommies.

Feeding the Horses

During the Christmas holidays we revisited the Police Department's Horses. My buddy Leslie took us once before and I never knew how much fun it was! We went to the stables off Woodway, signed in at the front desk, and then we took our carrots to go feed the horses. The best part is that it is free! The first time Justin would never offer a carrot, but this time he would throw the carrot at them and then run off laughing. I admit, I've always had a fear of horses - they are so big and I feel so out of control. So I hold my breath everytime they chomp on the long carrot I offer them. The trick (from a police officer) is to break off each carrot into several pieces, or you will be out of carrots in 10 minutes. I'm trying out a different way to arrange my photos, so let me know what you think. I meed to figure out how to not distort the photos when putting in a Magic Blog It Board. I haven't bought the software yet but am trying a trial offer. Maybe if I took the time to watch the video tutorial then I would be better at it.

Christmas PJ Playdate

Justin & I went to the 2nd annual Christmas Pajama Playdate hosted by Tracy. Last year not only did the kids wear pajamas but the mommies exchanged dozens of cookies as well. The decision this year was for the kids to decorate a cookie and have a book exchange as well. Nice change for a busy time of year. We had some last minute dropouts with sickness and appointments, but it was nice to have a smaller, calmer crowd.

The cookies waiting to be decorated...

...eventually looking like this.

The books for each family to take home.

Tuley, Hopkins, Michaelis, & Livesay pajama buddies

Kaylinn with her cookie. Justin intently working on his art.

Hudson eating his creation. Harper tasting her cookie.

Hallie slept through the whole party. John David watching the big kids decorate.

Smiles from Asher. Major laughing with his mommy.

Merry Christmas from my main squeeze.


Fun idea for a Christmas party. Looking forward to next year and all the extra kids that will be there!

Smorby Christmas Party

My photos are a little out of control on this post, so sorry for that. Tired of messing with blogger about it right now. The majority of my mom's family lives here in Houston, so we usually get together the weekend before Christmas to have a gift exchange. There are 5 of us that trade off hosting, and this year was Shane & Kaki's first time to have the honors. They did a great job of hosting all 22 of us!

Everywhere I looked the whole night there were decorations everywhere! I'm telling you, Kaki (well, and Shane too - I don't give him enough credit) really knows how to decorate.



A Christmas shower curtain! I mean, I want one those! And in the photo above is the Santa cookies that Kaki makes with her family every Christmas. Once again, I apologize for the random arrangements of photos.


We were missing three of the cousins/spouses. Justin had an absolute ball with the Dawson, Clay & Carter. On the right is Hilary, Kaki, myself, Amy, & Valerie.

My family is big into gag gifts. You never know if a gift is serious or a joke. No one ever admits to giving one either. And when the gift is opened, the laughter begins....







That's why I love this family - we love to laugh! Justin carried EVERY SINGLE gift to each person. He helped them open them, and then immediately went to get another gift. He surprisingly didn't care what any of the gifts were. It was fun to seeing him be the little helper. Fun times at the Smorby party (the combo of Smiths & Morbys)!

Return of the Doha travelers

The Junods have returned for the holidays from their new move to Doha, Qatar. It really seems like they just left, although it had been 7 weeks. I think it will hit me more after they leave this go around since it will be months before I see them again. Wendi has had such a great attitude about this whole thing - totally the Lord taking care of this sweet family!

Wendi has been sharing in my love of changing the way we take pictures. We were laughing at how our pictures from even a year ago look totally different than they do now. So I conveniently stole some photos from her blog from a lunch reunion that we put together real quick right before the holidays. Nothing like meeting with six families and thirteen kids, right after church, the weekend before Christmas. Lots of craziness, but so much fun.

Jennifer, Wendi, me, Katie, Tracy, & Kim


Justin was so excited to see his buddies. He loves his Brooks & Barrett. The second photo was when I decided to do ring-around-the-rosie to entertain the fussiness as nap time was well past time.


Looking forward to getting more face time with this family before they head back. If nothing else it's just been great to talk on the phone in the same time zone! Never realize how good you've got it until you try to talk to another mother on a 9 hour time difference.

Cheers to a Happy New Year! May all God's plans sweep you off your feet with excitement!