This year is going to rock!

Here are my boys rockin' out.

Breck on his new guitar and microphone.

His grandma Shirley thought it was the funniest thing to buy the kids noisy toys.

Breck and Mason guitars and Maizy a DJ mixer...can you imagine the "fun" at 

grandma and grandpas this Christmas?!?!

My little rock star!

And big one too!

New Years Eve day and we are ready to rock out another fun year!

A day at the hill

 Another winter break from school,

which means a house full crazy kids.

Time for some outdoor play...

so we bundled up and headed out to the "big"hill at Willmar park.

They had so much fun,

each taking turns on the sleds and helping each down the hill with a big push.

This boy WAS. IN. HEAVEN.

(even when the white fluff sprayed his little face)

They actually got along for a whole hour of fun.

No fights, screams, or whines...just lots of giggles!

They had races down the big hill.

BIG GRINS.

AND SMILES.

The "three musketeers" are such good buddies...

more like brothers and sisters then cousins.

Or possibly a bobsled team?!

And when we were thirsty?!

We ate the snow :)

Buddies.

And when we had trouble up the steep hill...

our buddy gave us a little push from behind.

Here is Breck "balancing himself" up the hill. It was so funny to watch.

And when the hill got tiring,

one little boy wondered off to the playground.

I caught him playing with the snowy slippery equipment,

eating a bit of snow,

then wonder back to the hill,

stumbling all the way in the hard bumpy snow!

They are so lucky to have such good buddy to share these times with.

And I am so lucky to have all these memories with some of my three favorite people.

Friends 2012

Not one of my best pic's

but captures the real moment!

Our annual "high school friends get-to-gather" 

Each year we are lucky enough to try meet up with old friends for a fun day of catching up.

Most of the times we are to busy keeping our young ones busy 

with donuts, cheese, and juice,

while we try and quickly get in our yearly updates!

but the best part is

seeing each other's beauties!

AND THIS

is what we get (see above)

aren't they gorgeous!

December 2012

My Main Man...

and his million expressions.

How can you not love this face?

Or kiss this one?

This boy makes my day...every day!

Playing Catch Up

Christmas is officially over...

it sneaks up so quickly and then boom it's past for another year.

Family back to their homes.

Back to work.

Houses put back to normal.

Decorations put away.

THIS I am having a hard time with....

I don't want to put away my cute Christmas decor,

tree,

gifts under the tree.

Maybe after the New Year...maybe ;)

We had a busy holiday season celebrating at

The Smith immediate family at my parents,

The Grandma Barrick's in Cokato,

The Grandma Barrick's in Litchfield,

The Barrick immediate family at our house

...That's a whole lot of celebrating

...That's a whole lot of food too.

After a longgggggg four days, all three of us snuggled up in our bed,

and crashed on Christmas Day night 

at 7:15p.m!  We slept in till 7:45a.m!

This is Ellery & Breck snoozing on Thursday afternoon...
they must have needed it too!

We must of needed it...

I'm refreshed and ready to go!

Looking forward to the New Year Celebration 

2013 is going to be a great year 

I. CAN. FEEL. IT.

Our Merry Little Christmas!

 This year Christmas was like no other.

It was SO wonderful,

one I will never forget.

I'm not 100% sure why this one stuck out as the "best Christmas"

 

Maybe it was because we spend a couple days before the big day with my family celebrating "Smith style":

Lots of good food

Lots of family...so much that we all crammed in my parents house and had to find places to sleep for the night. (I got the lovely floor on the bumpy rug)

Kids, kids, and more kids opening gifts and full of energy

Lots of laughs like always.

AND of course lots of annoying awesome gifts for Breck: a microphone and guitar, Stompeez, anteater bug catching vacuum, and candy land to name a few! ohh geez, love my family.

 

On Christmas Eve Jerod, Breck, and I had our first Christmas Eve as a little family.

We napped, went to church, came home and ate supper, opened gifts, then watched a Christmas movie just before setting out cookies for Mr. Clause.

We truly enjoyed watching Breck open gifts this year!

That face...

as he opened each gift!

This is him giving us a "thumbs up" in approval of his new remote control car!

Even I was excited, along with Breck, as I received my new laptop, something I have wanted and needed for awhile now.  It was "suppose" to be from Santa, but after Jerod opened his gift from me and he felt bad that I only got a new set of glasses (which I wanted also, and we needed).

I got Jerod ice fishing bibs and a jacket. What was I thinking...I wont' be seeing much of this guy for the rest of the winter ;)

Now I can blog and it will be normal looking again!

That Santa Clause..he's the best.

And one of my favorite gifts..

tangrams!

Remember these as kids...I do, and thought it was a fun gift for me Breck!

 

Breck woke up early and was ready to see if Santa had ate his cookies and drank his milk!

He was so excited to see crumbs on the plate and even helped Santa finish them off.

 

He must have been a good boy because he was happy with his new DVD player for the car.

and insisted on watching some Scooby Doo.

He later came back to his stocking to find more surprises!

Color wonder markers and a Toy Story notepad!

Honestly these things are the BEST!

worth the money...even though they are a bit spendy

Then Santa's BIG gift...something he's was VERY proud of giving to Breck ever since he received a kitchen set a year ago ;)

A tool bench!

After almost two hours of dad putting it together,

the boy was ready to "fik" stuff!

Breck was busy playing with all his new stuff while Jerod and I prepared lunch for the Barrick side afternoon Christmas delight!

We all ate way to much,

laid on the floor with full belly's watching A Christmas Story,

Opened gifts, which included hockey stuff for Breck (of course), money for his savings, and fun new books to read!

Another awesome year with family.

 

Since everyone has left, I decided to post my first blog on my fancy notebook...

JUST to try to stay awake a few more hours.

I've asked Jerod 1,000 times if it's to early to call it a night!!

 

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas filled with LOVE and FAMILY!

 

 

 

 

Santa clause is coming to town!

Our town has had so many fun things to do with kids for the holiday season! The annual Forest City Christmas that we usually attend, but missed this year :( Then there was the santa train, Breck was truely amazed..as we walked down the street toward it he said, "I never see that before" !! 

Santa came to the Litchfield library during our usual bed time story time. Pretty sure it was the best Santa I have ever seen..even the moms were in aww wondering is this really Santa!

 

Breck was not afraid of Santa AT ALL like he had been in the past years,

instead he sat on his lap and told him he wanted "presents" and "chicken nuggets" (that's do able),

 he was SO happy to meet him that he sat nice and quietly for Santa's story time, 

and stood up in front of the large crowd and told Santa that they had the same hat with such excitement!

Mamas little helper

Christmas shopping is in full gear! Not ideal, but sometime you have to drag along a chatty, busy, crazy two year old to finish up shopping!
For the most part he was pretty good...
Maybe it was the bribe of mcdonalds and the play place?!? Or maybe the bribe of chocolate custard from Culvers?!?
Either way it worked...
And I think he liked it!
Win win win.

With all this snow we got dumped on us this past week we have been fully taking advantage of it...going outside every afternoon!
Some of our favorite things include sliding down the deck stairs, eating ice, and rolling down hills...all learned from his big cousin ( thanks Calvin)!
And nothing beats a glass of hot chocolate and Oreo cookies after all that fun, especially when your mom bundles you up like ralphies brother..."ralphieeee"

Fun fun fun (and easy) ornament dough!

I got this recipe from a friend and it is so fun and such a cute idea!   We made thses today and it makes a ton of dough which equals a ton of ornaments to give to family as gifts from Breck!  I also made one of his hand print that turned out cute!! 
Enjoy :)

CINNAMON NO BAKE ORNAMENT RECIPE
1 cup cinnamon
4 Tblsp. White glue (like Elmer's)
3/4 to 1 cup water

Mix together cinnamon, glue, and water. Knead until consistency is that of cookie dough. Add more water if needed (just a little bit at a time) or add more cinnamon if too wet.

Cover and chill for about 1 1/2 hours. Take our of fridge and knead for a few minutes. Place some cinnamon on your work surface and roll out the dough to about 1/4" to 3/4" thickness.

Simply use cookie cutters or shape the dough into your Christmas design. Use a drinking straw to punch a hole for the ribbon or yarn to hand. Lay your cookie shapes on wax paper and let them air dry for 3 to 4 days. Turn them twice a day to prevent curling.
Paint when dry if you want!

Snuggle tume

Friday night we spent in our cozy house snuggling up in our favorite "sheep" blanket watching a movie. Brecks movie of choice this night?!? Memo aka Nemo.
We tried and tried to work on it and this was the end result....
Us: Breck say na, na, na Nemo
Breck: na, na, na Memo!!!