Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Poor child number 3, I realize I never posted your birthday pictures...so here goes... As you can see you had lots of help opening your presents... It took you a while, but you slowly started getting the hang of opening them up... You were very nice and shared your toys with your siblings and cousins... One, two, three BLOW! or just look at the candle and try to grab it while your brother and sister blow it out for you.... One thing you do know how to do is EAT!!!

I knew I had some other Christmas pictures, but apparently I saved them in the wrong folder. So without further adieu...Christmas: take 2 Okay, how ridiculous is this? ...and at the same time ridiculously cute. I love how his ears are pushed forward by the hat so he has little elf ears...okay, maybe he has the tiny Bramwell ears to boot, but still! Interesting- This picture was taken while the big dinner preparations were being made. Yes, I am in the background with my back in the picture, but I think I was taking Brayden's temperature, as you'll see below, he was sick on Christmas Eve. I think we ended up making the guys clean up dinner. Poor little guy...at least he felt better on Christmas. Grandma and her boys...and if you like to look in the backgrounds of pictures like I do- that is just sparkling cider that Mindy won in our annual card tournament. Dad reading the Christmas story... ...with baby Dallin listening intently. I know this is a horrible picture and I shoul...

Perhaps the only time Brooklyn lets Brayden tell her what to do!

Brayden, I wanted to write down a few things about you that make you so special. I know it is sappy, but I am your mom so I get to do stuff like that. *You are my cuddler. Even though you are getting older, you still love to sit close to me, and even sometimes play with my hair like you did when you were a baby. You'll even crawl into bed with me in the mornings and cuddle; I love it- except when it is too early! *You are very inquisitive. Lately you have been asking me lots of science questions. You are asking about space and what makes a universe and what is at the end of the universe. You are also interested in germs and how they make you sick. We had to go online to find pictures of them, and then you had even more questions. *You are very emotional. I think you get it from me. But, just as you can get mad and totally lose it- you can also show lots of empathy to others. You get excited about even little things, which makes life really fun. *You are a great brother...

Happy Birthday Brayden!!! My baby turning seven!!!!!!! My good friend said that the days are long and the years are short. I'm really feeling that way lately as I watch how big and grown-up he is- especially when I compare him to Landon, who is almost exactly six years younger. When his birthday approached he started making some seriously big plans. Trying to rein him in a bit, I told him he could have a party at our house with lots of friends or a party at chuck e cheese with the family and two friends. Much to my relief, he chose Chuck E. One of his friends was sick and unable to go, but he and Kellen had a blast. Brooklyn loved everything of course. Landon was happy to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa. I think the Grandparents were a little overwhelmed by the fun of it all though! And we were happy to be there for baby Graham's first trip of what surely will be many trips to Chuck E's.

Although last year Billy said we were going to spend Christmas at home from now on, I was able to convince him to go to Lewisville for Christmas one last time. Not that he doesn't want to go after or before, he just hates packing all the presents to and fro! Anyway, I haven't seen my sister Desi since she moved to AZ, so I was able to talk him into it. We had tons of fun, as we always do, playing games, eating and just being together. Here are a few highlights! The whole fam on the ginormous LoveSacs. The kids loved stacking them up against the wall, so they were only 2 feet from the ceiling and then jumping off them onto a smaller bag. It was hilarious and only a tad dangerous! We had the kids line up at the bottom of the stairs just like we used to when we were kids. It seems like just yesterday when Brayden was Landon's age and crawling up the stairs! Brooklyn and Maren had lots of fun showing each other their presents- especially when they matched! Landon was semi into ...

We took the kids to a live nativity that even had a camel! The kids were very impressed (mostly by the wagon ride). Hopefully it helped the kids understand the Christmas story a little bit better. We even made the kids' great-grandma come with us! They even had hot chocolate when we finished. I was so impressed that so many people would volunteer their time and talents to put this on for the community. It may just become a Christmas tradition for our family to go to this. You can check it out next year in Eagle .