Monday, January 18, 2010

Chirstmas 2009

Christmas is always my favorite time of year. Of course, when I was a kid I just wanted presents, but as I grew up I started to love the feeling of the season, giving gifts, being with family, and of course the snow!

This year was a perfect combination of all the good. It was fun going to the "old-fashion" tree lot to pick out a tree, just me and Kalli. And bringing it home and decorating it with all our hand-me-down ornaments and decorations. We decided we're going to have to take turns each year choosing a tree because Kalli loves the small, scraggly trees (this year), and I like the big, bushy ones. Maybe we can get both if we get a house soon!

We had great company again this year. All of Kalli's family lives in the area and my sister, Julie, came from Arizona with her family for a couple weeks. The only ones missing were Jon and Melissa from Washington, DC. While we always miss them, we enjoyed spending time with everyone else watching movies, playing games, eating good food, and just hanging out, having a good time!

And I can't forget to mention the snow!! We were blessed with some wonderful white stuff this Christmas break. We always have tons of fun at the Smith's house playing in the backyard, sledding, skiing, snowboarding, and riding around on and behind the four-wheeler. It wouldn't be a Smith get-together if we didn't play in the snow and build jumps and box-hits (a plastic box to ski and snowboard on).

We planned on having fun at the Heaps cabin for New Year's Eve, but the first night we were there (New Year's Eve) I got the stomach flu which definitely ruined me and Kalli's weekend (and probably everyone else's). We ended up going home the next day when I finally felt good enough to make the trip down the canyon.

So besides that little incident we had a great Christmas!! We hope you all had fun too. Here are a bunch of random pictures from the couple weeks' festivities.

We started off the season making a Christmas card. We had fun taking pictures for it!


Not the biggest tree in the world!


Kalli's "cute little tree"




Don't judge me. She wanted that pot.


The monstrous Heaps' tree is always a sight to see on Christmas morning!



His fuzzy pj's were the best!


Madi, the cup-cake queen.



Yeah, we finally have night-stands so I don't have to use the non-level kitchen chair anymore.


The 65-inch live fireplace was a nice touch to set the mood.


So much fun!!



Extreme Eric wanted me to build a jump for the disk sled. He and Cole were lovin' it!




Jensen and Drew got in on the jumping action too.


Still jumping at dusk.


We're serious about this stuff - Julie and Ella are all business :)


I love the snow everywhere. Couldn't be more pretty!!



Love this picture. (sweet 80's get-ups girls)


I had to include the chopper. We had about 4 of these flying around on Christmas at the Smith's.




The kiddies love the train.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

2009....good riddance, I mean I hope I never see you again...oh yeah I won't, in that case...good riddance

2009 was crazy!!!! I know everyone says this, but where did the time go?
..........I was about to give a little recap of our year, but I am having a hard time remembering very many noteworthy things....2009 was full of some ups... some downs... and a whole lot of busy.
School, homework, work, and photography...these are the things that we have been most busy with. Joel is about to start his LAST semester of school...as you can imagine we are both very very excited. He worked so hard last semester and it paid off with straight A's.
When I wasn't working at my day job I was busy with photography. This year has been an interesting one trying to figure out the workings of a small(tiny) business. Making mistakes, trying to define my "style", and figuring out what direction to take things.
One thing I'll always remember about 2009 is that this is the year I realized I am getting old. Among other things, this was brought on by LOTS of grey hairs, combating my Thyroiditis, and realizing that exercise really is a necessity if I want to be healthy (umm why didn't yall clue me in on this??? ;) ). I miss my younger, problem free body, but am coming to terms with me "now".
To be honest I haven't missed 2009, 2010 is looking much better already. Bring it on.

This year I plan on...
taking better care of my body
not letting my thyroiditis get the better of me
flossing every day...(am I the only one that hasn't already made this a strict daily habit?)
strengthening my testimony
being more grateful
trying to refrain from anger...this is an amazing talk
exercise more (I know I know...everyone says this but I'm really going to do it!)
being more open and honest, less afraid of people, and more comfortable in my own skin

We did have lots of fun in there somewhere between the busyness..... These are a few of our adventures that we didn't blog about.

We went on a fun hike with the smith family
went wakeboarding with bryan, lindsay, and brayden

actually joel wakeboarded and I enjoyed looking at the cold water from the boat

went to a demolition derby with kristin and ian

went to the manti pagent with abby and steven

saw a baseball game and listened to some hillarious hecklers
went to lagoon with abby and steven
took our huge kite our for a spin(fly?)

Joel taught me how to hit a golf ball


we played at the park one sunny morning


and I'll end with this one because I just think it's funny. us at the fair. we went with Katie and Eric and had a splendid time

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

"I Have Eatan"

"I Have Eatan" a poem by Joel Smith, age 7


Ok...Isn't this the cutest thing you've ever read? I think we laughed for half an hour after finding this. I love it.