Well, Christmas has come and gone. Christ had finished subjecting himself to hanging out in a woman's uterus and entered this cold world. All with the intention of dying for us. What a humbling thought. We tried to make Christ the center of this season. With singing and telling the true Christmas story we began to open the gifts that we were blessed with this Christmas! Belle was just happy to be here and hanging out with everyone!Mom was having a good time as well!

Julie decorated herself and Belle with beautiful jewel stickers she recieved.
Julie has the jewel stickers adorning her and she is holding her make-up bag that Santa brought her filled with "kids" make-up. (Clear lip gloss, fingernail polishes, clippers and a file.) She was thrilled!

Daddy was just as happy as the kids with his water purification system, new fishing lure, a handheld GPS and array of other things!
Noah is happy, really! This is the new face he makes when you ask him to smile.

Gabe is still reeling from the fact that he got a "light saver" from Santa!
Julie is just happy, what can I say!

My three older children. I hope that they are always such good buds!


When they were through with their own gifts they opened "everybody" gifts. Daddy got them a boat to go floating this year at Warm River!

Almost through, as you can see Noah has shed his clothing. A sure sign he is done and ready to eat breakfast. Yummy baked pancakes!
Thank you all for your gifts! We appreciate you all and can't wait to see you guys!

Snowing

We are definetly going to have a white Christmas. Last night we got 4-6 inches of snow and it is still snowing and is supposed to keep snowing all week. The kids are thrilled. Mom has blisters from shoveling snow and we pray that daddy stays safe as he is doing stuff for work. There were six accidents in 7 miles on his way into town this morning. I will post pictures when I get a chance.

Where I take mandolin lessons they also teach violin/fiddle. In the store part there has been this pink vioin, both my mom and I have seen it and thought of Julie. The owner said alot of people wanted it, but it wasn't for sale. My mom, Bob, Desi, Christina, and Davy went to a program where the owners band played. They also had a silent auction. Guess what was there! The pink violin!! My mom bid on it and got it. It was shown to Julie and my mom told her when she is as tall as her mommy she can play it. So I think Gabe and Julie are going to be starting violin lessons so she is ready for it. I know from the pictures you can't really see her face, but she was blown away!

The kids are in the Christmas program. We had practice today. I tell you what, there is nothing sweeter than hearing your children sing praises to God! They look so cute doing it too!
(sorry the pictures are so dark)

Gabe and Julie are in the front row .

Yesterday I was just taking pictures because our baby Belle turned 4 months old yesterday! I got the look from Toby, but as you will see I just kept shooting anyway! :)


Belle got her Christmas present from Gram a little early and loves it!

Noah is being potty-trained and this is him sitting on his potty.

Tinkerbell

I know with Belle being the youngest and a baby she might not be in alot of the pictures I post. So I decided to just post a couple pictures of her. Toby and I marvel at all our children. It is still a very special thing for us that Toby got to deliver her. She is a daddy's girl and Toby loves it. Belle was alseep on her daddy's chest, holding his finger. I had to take a picture. She seems to be getting so big, it is little things like this that remind me how little she still it. A little girl holding on to her daddy's thumb. This is the first time she sat in the highchair. Of course, she is helped being propped up by a blanket. She sat there looking and trying to grab the toys while we had dinner. She was very happy to be part of the family.

Mom's kids come over every Friday for her cello lessons. Desi loves to hold Belle and Belle loves it too. This last Friday she fell asleep on Des while Desi was walking around with her! I thought it was so precious.

Gingerbread house!

Toby brought home this gingerbread house kit! It was such fun and a great decoration! Noah loved decorating the gingerbread house because he liked snitching the candy.

Julie, Julie, she is telling me what candy Gabe is snitching.

Gabe really liked the sprinkles!

This is them eating the leftover candy that didn't make it on the gingerbread house.

Of course, we had to snitch some of the frosting, too.

Watching mom assemble the house. Getting ready to decorate! Here is a little video of the end result!

Everybody dance now!

Okay, so I think the kids picked up some of Uncle Joe's moves when we were in Maryland this summer! :) They crack me up!

Winter

It feels like winter here with highs in the 20's. Snow is on the ground and the road. The kids have already gone sledding twice and of course both times mom forgot the camera. These days Noah is a puppy alot of the days and Gabe and Julie play anything from dragons to airplane club. Belle is just getting sweeter and sweeter. Mom is busy doing housestuff, kidstuff and playing her mandolin. I am playing quite a bit in church and the Lord has helped me do well. Toby is busy with the businesses. He had his final yesterday and now I think he is gearing up for ice fishing. I am thinking of Wes and Roxanne in the Carribean and am hoping they are having a great time!

At Gram's

This is how we Wii, how about you?

They all line up in a line and watch the person playing. Davy is playing Super Mario Galaxy.

Gram and Belle are having a conversation. Yes, Belle is related to me, even at 3 months old she is already does most of the talking. :)

At Gram's for Reading and Rest time they can choose to watch a movie. The movie of choice lately is Kungfu Panda. I watched it for the first time yesterday and it was cute.
Noah cleaned the little table because it had gotten messy when they ate on it. Julie and Davy drew dragons.

We are so blessed to live close to our sweet Gram, Papa and kids. The kids are never bored at Gram's house they tell me. :)

Hope you all are having a wonderful week. Christmas is close and we are thinking of all of you that don't live close. We miss you all Grandma's and Papa's, aunts and uncles, cousins, and friends.

Mom is sick.

Mommy is not feeling great so the kids are bored! Noah is really turning into a little phone talker. Whenever Gabe talks to someone on the phone, when he is done talking he asks the person," Do you want to talk to my mom?" Well, yesterday, Noah is on the phone with Gram and then Toby, both times at the end he said,"Bye,bye, talk to mom." It was so cute! Gabe and Julie played Kungfu Panda all day. Belle was, well, a baby and very laid back.

Wrestling!

My kids think that shorts are all that are required for wrestling. Do you think that our children got both Toby's and my competitive nature? :) This is a very common occurrence!

Noah goes to BSF

Noah got to go to BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) for the first time yesterday. Gabe and Julie have gone for about 2 years now. Roxanne is one of the teachers and takes them. Roxanne is Noah's teacher. He was so excited to finally be able to get out with Gabe and Julie. Roxanne said he didn't say a single thing in class. They frosted cookies in their class and another little girl thought he was a baby. She broke off part of her cookie to feed "the baby" while he frosted his own. Unlike Julie, he had no problem being called a baby, especially if he got a cookie out of it! Later I asked him about it. I asked him if a girl thought he was a baby. He said, yes. He then said, "Cookie, Yum, Yum!" He was working it the whole time! While the older three were at BSF, Toby, Belle and I went to breakfast and Christmas shopping. It was a nice low key day yesterday. I am so blessed to live where I live, close to family, to have a wonderful husband and four great kids. Thank you, Lord!

Belle laughing!

Here is our little Belle laughing. This was taken a few weeks ago, but it always makes me smile. I hope it makes you guys smile too.

Christmas Party

Yesterday was so nice! We went to church and afterwards mom took our kids to her house. We went to lunch at Johnny Carino's. Then we came home and took an overdue 2 1/2 hour nap! When we woke up it was time to head to the North Hi-Way/Blue Wave Christmas party. It was nice to just be a couple, not mom and dad, too. We had a lovely time. My only complaint was the smoke. I recieved measuring cups and spoons. I also got mulling spice. Toby got candles and chocolates. Roxanne got me this great pink jacket with the North Hiway on it. It soo super soft and warm. We had a delicious dinner and good laughs and then went back to pick up our children. I love being a wife and I love being a mother. Thankfully the kids behaved at Gram's! It was a wonderful way to start the week!

My Noah turns 2!

My sweet Noah turned two today! Wow, does time fly, but it seems like he has been part of our little family for alot longer than two years! I thank the Lord for him. He has brought such joy to our lives with his sweet spirit! We had a party and he loved it! Grandma and Papa Smith came. Gram and Papa, aunts and uncles, and even Uncle Monty and Lucas were there. Our house was overflowing with people who love him.

It is imperative that you lick the candle!

Papa Smith got him this great horse and he was giving Julie's doll a ride.He blew out the candle before we were done singing so I missed it! He had been practicing all day!
Every time he opened a present he had to go show every person in the room what he got!

It was hard for Julie and Gabe just to watch him open his presents!

This picture is for Aunt TT so she can see how Belle is looking now. You others can look too. She is such a pretty baby! I know I am biased! :)

They even got to go see Santa today with Gram, Papa and my brother Davy.
Noah loved when we sang Happy Birthday to him!

One last picture of Santa. Where Noah asked for cars, Julie asked for kid make-up, Gabe asked for a remote controlled Dragonfly, and Davy asked for a Nerf Tommy20 dartgun.


Happy Birthday to Beth too! I hope you had a wonderful birthday! We all love you!