December

December is one of those fun, exciting, stressful, awesome, awful months that you thoroughly enjoy but at the same time are relieved when it's over. 
Christmas decorations are down, school break for me and the kids is in full swing.  We are enjoying days of sleeping in and having free time. 
The kids all asked Santa for a group present-a new TV.  Our old one was, well, old.  They are loving it.
Brenna and Braelynn's school has a secret Santa shop that they can bring money in and can pick out a present for a family member.  I sent each of them with a little money they had earned to buy a present for the family member they had this year.  They each asked me separately and secretly if they could buy a present for the other twin.  My heart swelled when they each asked me that, but I laughed when they came home and showed me what they had bought for each other.  Identical purple rings.  We wrapped them and hid them under the tree.  The look on Braelynn's face Christmas morning when she opened her present from Brenna was priceless.  A mixture of confusion and excitement.  We all laughed when they figured out they had bought each other the same gift!

Braelynn and the purple ring.  The picture of them together was too blurry. 

Shirts that Aunt Vera make all the nieces and nephews.  It says "If at first I don't succeed...I just go ask my Aunt Vera! 

Sam 

Brenna 

Braelynn 

Tyler 

Veronica

Graham Cracker Houses

 

Talents



 

I just wanted to show off one of Samantha and Veronica's tallents.  The video of Sam singing is awful, it was noisy and hard to hear but she has a solo around 1.25.  Veronica played her violin in church at the end of November, we recorded her practicing with the pianist one day.  She is playing the violin my Grandpa Smith MADE for her.  It sounded awesome and was extra special to have him and my parents there to hear her play.

For some reason,  I can't get Veronica's video to load so here is a picture of her and my Grandpa afterwards.

Special Visitor

We have a friend who helps Santa out in this busy time of year.  He is always nice and stops by every year to see us.  I wasn't home when he came this year but asked Joe to take pictures for me.  Even those that didn't want to sat on Santa's lap!

Breaking Tradition

This year Thanksgiving was different than we have ever had before.  Different but good!  We take turns with the two families every year and this years' turn was my side of the family  We weren't able to be with them this time, so we decided instead of spending all day cooking we would go to a restaurant instead.  Since it was supposed to be beautiful weather we went to St. George, hiked Snow Canyon, relaxed a bit there and enjoyed the sunshine then went to Golden Corral.
Without the travel and cooking/baking that comes with the holidays we were able to spend some time cleaning, playing, and having fun.  We thoroughly enjoyed our break!

One of the fun things we did was have a hot chocolate stand.  I am not sure where the idea came from,  but Brenna and Braelynn have been wanting to do this since the summer.  It wasn't really cold enough for hot chocolate but they had fun and spent the entire afternoon one day selling hot chocolate to neighbors and people passing by.