Off to School!

We sure are going to miss Daddy while he's at school, but we are so proud of him for starting up again! I know working full time, and going to school is gonna be way hard especially now that we have a child, but I know you can do it! I love you so much! Thanks for all you do for our little family. P.S. I'll try to keep Mara out of your backpack..but I make no promises!

Sick, but oh so cute baby!

She has had a terrible cold, so we've had many a sleepless night around here. How can a kid be so sick and yet so adorable? She definitely didn't get it from me, I look like death when I'm sick! Anyways, I had fun taking pictures of her today...so I thought I'd share them with you!

Road Trip!

Before we were even on the freeway Mara was out cold! Unfortunately it didn't stay that way for long, but she was an angel anyways. Her and my dad "talked" the whole way. He would make a noise, and she'd copy it. On and on it went.

We went up to Idaho to help my Grandparents out on their big construction project. Who am I kidding? I stayed in the warm comfy house while the boys were outside working! It was so much fun to see my Grandparents! My uncle and his family were also there from Wyoming, so it was a party. I'm so grateful that I have such an amazing extended family! Thanks for letting us stay with you for a couple of days!

First Big-girl Ponies!

Can I just tell you how "fun" that was! She was so darn cute! They didn't last very long...but it was cute while it lasted.

Christmas!

True to form, the youngest in the bunch was awake first! Sean and I decided that if we had to be awake so did everyone else...so we gave them a wake up call! Mara pounded on those keys until everyone got up!



She didn't really get the whole opening presents thing. She would rip a piece and turn around to make sure we weren't going to get mad at her! She had been obsessed with presents and was constantly being told, "no, no". She couldn't figure out why it was ok all of the sudden!


We had so much fun shopping for Christmas gifts for Mara. Even though she totally didn't get it, it was fun having a kid around for Christmas!


Thanks for the camera Mom! I'm sure Sean is gonna love that I posted this picture...don't worry I'll post one of me some day! Haha


Yes that is Mara next to her 3-in-1 Sports Station. The picture doesn't show it, but it also has a baseball station and a football station. It is super cute. She mostly just likes the basketballs right now though...someday she'll get it!


We had an amazing Christmas! Thank you to everyone who made it that way!

Christmas Eve

Sean had to work. Don't remind me. Someone has to guard those crazies I guess...it was sad he missed it, but I'm so grateful he has an awesome J-O-B!

Anyways, my family always gets together with my aunt Marcie's family for Christmas Eve. We always have a blast! Yummy food, Grandpa Smoot always reads How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the nativity story (this year starred Mara and Tayton!), and we watch the Church's version of the Nativity that's like two minutes long, and kind of talk about Christmas and our Savior. I love this part of Christmas Eve the most! Here are some pictures of the night.


Gettting a Christmas dress has always been a tradition in my family. It was a blast picking one out for Mara. Isn't she cute?


Mara definitely found a new bestfriend that night! That is my cousin Jade. She loved everyone, but somehow she always found her way back to Jade!



Cute story: Alan's sister's family got a puppy for their kids for Christmas. But when your kids believe in Santa the gifts can't just show up early! So they dropped the puppy off at Marcie's for the night for them to deliver in the morning. It was a little awkward because they didn't know if Tayton still believed in Santa or not, so they put a note on the kennel and rang and ran. The note asked them to take care of the puppy for the night for Santa because he was too busy to make the delivery in the morning. Well, Mara absolutely loves dogs. She goes nuts, and this was no exception. She let the dog lick her all over! It totally grossed me out, but she was loving it!



Mara got to be Mary for the nativity. It only lasted about two seconds until she realized that she could rip the baby out of the manger...so of course I didn't get a picture. Yes, that is her tossing baby Jesus on the ground.

I love Christmas Eve the most out of all the festivities because we get to focus on the Savior. I had a wonderful time this Christmas Eve, thanks to everyone who made it a success! We sure love you!

Christmas Preparations

Wow, I'm behind on posting...I'll start off my endless blogging with what led up to Christmas!

My family always does the 12 days of Christmas for a family in our neighborhood. We don't do anything big, just a little "thought you'd like to know that someone was thinking of you". Anyways, for the last day we were going to make them a treat and decided to try something new. We got a cupcake cookbook and I decided I would try to make some of the things.





My Father-in-law collects Nutcrackers so I decided to make some for him! My mom's gift to my Mother-in-law was a pretty platter, so we decided that I could make cupcake nutcrackers to put on the platter! Perfect...right? Wrong. We obviously didn't think it through because we got all the stuff to make three nutcrackers not realizing how huge they were, so we ended up giftwrapping cardboard and putting the other two on those...sort of tacky, I know. They were actually really cute because my mom had way cute paper. Anyways, here is a picture!





I seriously love Christmas. Mostly because I love making things for other people. Anyways, these projects were so much fun that I've decided that for Mara's first birthday party it will be a cupcake theme. Stay tuned for that adventure!