The Smith Family

for Christmas lights, dance recitals and Christmas parties!

We ventured out to see the lights at Temple Square early in December before the month got too busy.  It was a nice night, not too cold!  Definitely busy though.  Hannah and I got separated from Jeff and the boys while walking through a big crowd.  It wouldn't have been a big deal if I had my cell phone, but it was with Jeff in the stroller!  Luckily, everyone and their dog has a cell phone and a nice man let me borrow his.  Anyway, once we were reunited we had a lovely night!

Hannah got to perform at the Festival of Trees and had a winter recital this month.  She loves wearing her costume and putting on makeup.  She never gets nervous and does a really good job!  Great Grandma Pearson even came to watch her this year.  I love the picture of them together.  Grandma Merrilee brought her flowers at both performances.  It's a good thing for Grandma since Mom always forgets! Grandpa Don and Morgan came to the recital too.  She loves having family come to watch her dance.


 
The Pearson Family Christmas party is always a holiday tradition.  It didn't seem like there were quite as many people this year, but still so nice to visit with everyone.  Some of the kids shared their talents.  Hannah and my cousin's little girl Victoria take dance together so they did their cute Christmas dance.  I sat and talked to my Grandma Pearson for a minute and asked her if she was enjoying the party.  She said she was so amazed looking around the room at all of her posterity.  There sure are a lot of people who look up to her and love her!

This year we had Thanksgiving dinner with my family.  We decided to make it a double party and celebrate Jeffrey's birthday too!  We always have a great time when we're together.  I'm so thankful for my family!

Jeffrey celebrated his 7th birthday with a Lego Hero Factory party!  He invited all of his best buddies over for a fun night of games and pizza.  Honestly, I tried to talk him into going somewhere because I wasn't sure how to entertain all these boys.  They ended up having a good time though!  The night started with a silly string battle and some racing outside.  Then they came in to warm up with some pizza and dancing!  They played some more games, ate cupcakes, and ran around until it was time to go home.  He got three new Hero Factory guys and some other really cool stuff.  I know Jeffrey had fun and loved having all of this friends over.  Happy 7th Birthday, Jeffrey!

We had fun playing in the snow after the big storm last weekend.  This is the first time Grayson has really been out to play in the snow.  He got so excited every time he looked out the window and saw all the white stuff.  The kids built a snowman with Jeff.  I took pictures and got hit with a few snowballs.  I might have thrown a few too!  You gotta love Jeff in his short sleeve shirt while the rest of us are all bundled up! 





This is Grayson's face after hearing a siren...



First taste of snow...Yuck!

Hannah also got to celebrate her birthday with family.  We always invite everyone to wear their costumes because it's the only time we get to see everyone dressed up.  Jeff's sister Erin and her family always have the most creative costumes.  Unfortunately, I never get a picture of all of them together!  Anyway, we had a fun pizza party and enjoyed everyone's company.  Hannah opened some more fun gifts and ran around with her cousins.  The Barbie cake made it through the night and then we let Grayson go to town on it...lol!  I think we were so sick of looking at it that no one wanted to eat it.  Instead, we enjoyed delicious cupcakes that Leah made!  Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Hannah celebrated her 5th birthday with a super cute, super fun Barbie party!  She invited 6 of her friends to come and bring their favorite Barbie.  All of the girls were excited to put on a Barbie Girl crown as soon as they arrived.  They started out making some cute bracelets while the girls took turns going to the Barbie spa.  Aunt Madi helped paint the girls nails and put on a little make up.  Even the Barbies hung out at the spa!  The girls loved being pampered!  I hung a cute pink frame and took pictures of each of them.  Then they ate lunch, colored Barbie pictures and watched the Barbie mermaid movie.  Hannah opened all of her fun gifts and then we sang Happy Birthday with this fun Barbie cake (it was starting to lean at this point!).  We sent all of the girls home with a treat bag full of girly essentials like nail polish, necklaces, rings, Barbie note pads and treats.  You might notice that Jeffrey made an appearance too!  Thanks to all of her cute little friends for coming and making it so much fun! Thanks to Grandma Merrilee and Madi for all of their help.  Hannah loved her party! 

Halloween was a busy day, as usual!  I rushed to get to Jeffrey's parade in the morning.  I had an hour until Hannah's parade, which I thought was plenty of time.  However, for some odd reason, Jeffrey's class was the last class in the parade.  As soon as he walked by, I rushed to Hannah's parade.  I got there just in time!  She had to go back to class, so I ran to the store.  Then I rushed back to get her.  Then I ran a change of clothes to Jeffrey at school.  Then I let Hannah pick her birthday lunch.  McDonald's it was!  Then I had to rush home and get ready to go back and help with Jeffrey's class party.  Whew!  Finally, we had a few hours to relax before it was time to go trick or treating.  I love it when the weather is nice!  There were so many people out.  The kids had a lot of fun!


Funny side note: Jeffrey wore 3 different costumes on Halloween.  He was a white ninja in the morning for school.  Then he put on Captain America to go trick or treating.  However, right before they left to go, he decided he wanted to be a black ninja so that he could battle the neighbor boy ninja.  Good thing this kid has costumes galore!

My Dad retired last week after working for the U.S. Postal Service for 40 years.  That is a seriously long time!  We decided to surprise him on his last day.  We took 40 balloons and did a balloon release to celebrate.  It was pretty funny!  I'm sure everyone thought we were crazy.  I think my Dad enjoyed it though.  We got a few last day pictures of him by his truck.  I asked him the other day if he was sad to be leaving.  His response, HELL NO!  So, I guess you could say he is happy to be retiring.  Happy Retirement!

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch last week.  The kids each picked a pumpkin (or two!).  Even Grayson got in on the fun this year.  I love having fun little holiday traditions.  We are excited to carve our pumpkins this week.  Happy Halloween!