Smith Christmas

The holidays are here, and we got together to celebrate with my family this weekend. This year Dad and Chris came to the kids in Minnesota. Thank you for traveling :) Sometimes I still think it is pretty crazy how that all worked out with my brother, sister and I all marrying people from Minnesota and living within an hour from each other and my dad living in Pulaski. Anyway, we started the festivities by going to Lauryn and Miranda's dance recital. Kelsey of course loved it! She was dancing in the bleachers and trying to mimic the dancers. She also enjoyed watching Korinne's facial expressions during the music. Here is Kelsey and Miranda after the girls performed.


We went back to Brian and Molly's and had dinner next.




The kids were all pretty patient and waited until everyone was done eating before we dove into gift opening. We also snuck in family photos before gift opening as an incentive. "If you smile for the picture, you can open your presents." And hey, it seemed to work.

The Skalas


The White's


The Smith's


Grandma and Grandpa with all 7 grandkids--soon to be 8 :)


Brian and Molly's living room floor looked like a wrapping paper explosion when the kids were given the green light to dig in.



We rounded out the night by singing Christmas carols as a family. It just so happened that Day #8 of Chri-Skala-Mas was to sing Christmas carols. Good timing ;)
Kelsey's favorite Christmas carols are Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. She knows almost every word to Jingle Bells, has the Fa La La La La part down in Deck the Halls and knows the chorus of We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Once all the kids went to bed, the adults stayed up and played Squabble Scene-It. It was a great day filled with family, laughter, and fun.

Days 11-9

Chri-Skala-Mas is in full swing!
Day 11:
Kelsey made Christmas cards.


Day 10:
Family Game Night
We let Kelsey open her Chutes and Ladders game.

Day 9:
Open a present
Kelsey got to open her Snow White book.

Chri-Skala-Mas

We have started a new tradition that we hope to carry on for many years to come. Welcome to Chri-Skala-Mas! For the next 12 days, we will have one activity each day to prepare for and get excited for Christmas. We made a countdown chart that Kelsey gets to tear off one paper from each day. Today was Day #12. Day #1 will be Christmas Day. We tried to mix up the activities with things that we have to do together as a family, traditional Christmas activities, and of course a present here and there ;) As our kids get older, the 12 days of activities will change and hopefully get to the point where it is more about giving than receiving.

The countdown chart


Tearing off the first number sheet

Day #12 activity


Opening her first present


Kelsey really likes the movie The Princess and The Frog, so she got a pair of Princess Tiana socks.

Kelsey's First Dance Recital

Kelsey had her very first dance recital tonight. It was a Christmas recital hosted at the studio. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Stacey, Aunt Diane and Daddy all came to watch. We would have had all the boys come too, but we were supposed to limit our guests to 3-4. Good thing for video taping :) We have been practicing our Christmas dances for the past three weeks and Kelsey caught on pretty quickly. We would practice at home now and then too, just to be sure she remembered all the parts. She danced to three songs: Santa Claus is Coming, Christmas Morning, and Jingle Bells. She definitely made us all proud because she did GREAT! She was not intimidated at all by all the people. In fact, she seemed to even ham it up more. She did all the dance moves and knew every part. Quite the little dancer we have on our hands.

Baking Day 2010

Today was our annual Christmas baking day. Every year, Stacey, Vickie, Diane and I pick a recipe or two to make and then share with everyone else. This year we moved the event to Vickie and Dave's house. Stacey has been gracious enough to host the previous years. I am glad we were able to be in town and inside because while we were busy baking, a blizzard was making quite the mess outside. We received over a foot of snow, along with extremely strong winds which caused blowing and drifting snow. We even lost power. Plus, when we left, it was whiteout conditions even on some town roads. Therefore, baking inside was the perfect winter activity! The boys and kiddos all joined us for part of the day as well. Kelsey wanted to help for a little bit, but was not all that interested. Grandma and Grandpa's house has way too many other fun things to keep her entertained. The recipes this year all turned out so yummy! We always all go away with WAY more than we need. However, I guess that means lots and lots of sharing :) I am very thankful for this day because it is a great tradition that I hope we can carry on. As Kelsey gets older, I am sure she will join right in with all the ladies.

Hometown Holiday Weekend

Owatonna hosts a Hometown Holiday weekend every year and we decided to join in the festivities this year. Kelsey is finally big enough to actually understand more of it and also be able to handle being outside in the cold for part of it, too. Here is Kelsey all bundled up and ready to go!
We began by eating supper at The Kitchen with Grandma and Stacey and the boys.
They had a cookie decorating station for the kids while we waited for our meal. It was pretty cute. Kelsey chose a snowman cookie to decorate and with the help of Grandma, here is what she made:


Next up was the parade. I thought it was very well done with lights on all the parade entries. Kelsey liked the blow-up Santa on a motorcycle. It was pretty cold, but the parade was short enough where we weren't out there too long. We did go down to Central Park following the parade in hopes of seeing them turn on all the lights, but we had kind of reached our limit in the cold and decided to head home.







Friday made it look a lot more like Christmas around here due to the winter storm that dumped about 6 inches of snow. We had planned to go to the Village of Yesteryear for Christmas in the village, but backed out due to the snow. We did go to a very neat event that supported a local organization called Beds for Kids instead.

Today we had Breakfast with Santa. Last year Kelsey was very afraid of Santa and wanted nothing to do with him. We talked to her about seeing him ahead of time and really talked it up before we left, but we still weren't sure how she would react. When we first went over to see him, she grabbed on tight to my shirt and said "no mommy". But then we talked to him a bit while I held her and then he asked her to sit on his lap for a picture and she did! AND--she even smiled for the camera! What a difference a year makes.

I Not Going

Kelsey has been entertaining us with many one liners lately. This morning when we were getting her ready to go to Mary's she was pretty tired yet and not wanting to get ready. We kept telling her how much fun it would be, how she gets to see her friends, etc. She then told us "No, I not going today." Thankfully she was fine when she was dropped off though.

She likes to tell us "I do it" and then has to proceed to try to do many things on her own.

She likes to say who is a boy or girl. "Daddy a boy, Mommy a girl, I a girl, too!"

Many things are her favorite right now. "Ohhh, that my favorite."

If we say we like something, she will say "Me too!" However, that little stinker is smart because we tried it when we say carrots or broccoli or things we know she does not care for that much and she would stop and then say" I no like that Mommy/Daddy".

She wants to come in now when Matt and I go to the bathroom and then cheers for us by saying "Yay Mommy/Daddy, you went tinkles."

She is very anti-jeans right now. I have no idea why, but when I try to put jeans on her, she is not having it. She lays there saying "no put my jeans on. I no like them." I have tried to trick her and say they are blue plants or put them on when I think she is distracted, but she knows everytime.

If we try to play with her or get her to do something when she doesn't want to, she will say "No, I working" to avoid it.

When we were doing dishes tonight after supper she was playing with something from the tupperware cupboard and I tried to take it from her. She told me," Mommy you naughty. You go stand in corner." Not sure where she heard that before because we do not use that as discipline at our house yet.

She is really into wanting to hug and kiss us. She will come up to us at random times and say "I give you hug/kiss. I love you". How sweet is that?

Tonight she wanted to play with her baby and change its diaper. She had to get out wipes, lotion, A&D ointment, and Desitin. I hope she wants to be this helpful when the baby arrives.

Speaking of baby, we have 100 days to go!!! Tomorrow we will be down to double digits. We are currently almost 26 weeks. The baby is moving a lot and I absolutely love it. The baby seems to move the most when I am sitting in bed in a reclined position to watch TV before going to bed. It is so amazing. I have also started to develop heartburn again. I had it with Kelsey too, so I am ready for it. The other thing that is back is my sock line. When I take my socks off at night, you can see the indent of where my socks were. I guess my feet are a little swollen at night. Nothing bad, but enough that I can slightly notice. However, I will take it all gladly :) I still don't have a feeling one way or the other about whether the baby is a boy or girl. We also do not have names locked down yet either. Good thing we have a little time to get that figured out. It will come to us :)