President's Cup Champions!

Another holiday weekend...another soccer tournament!! I love, love watching the team play soccer and tournaments are so good because there are so many games in such a short time. This tournament had another plus...it was in sunny St. George, so it was warm! Yea!

Our team had it's first game on Friday, so we traveled down just in time for the game. It was not a good game and there was a lot of rust to dust off. We ended up tying the game and trying to forget about it. Saturday morning was another game and we rocked! It was so fun to see the team come back and play the way they know how to. Evan had a great goal in the game with a driving run to the net and in! We won that game 3-1 and went on to beat La Roca 2-0 in our second game that day. With the group stage over we were on to the semi-finals on Monday.

After a fun weekend we played a hard semi-final game and won that 1-0. The final was set as a rematch with La Roca. We thought we had our first goal when it was called back for an offsides call that could have gone either way. Evan was offsides, but was not involved in the play, but it was still called as offsides and in the way of the goalie. That was really hard, but the team rallied on and fought hard to a 0-0 draw in regulation. On to a 10 minute overtime. With 30 seconds left in overtime we scored a goal! Then we hunkered in for the last 30 seconds and we won!

The Blue Knights are the champions of the President's Cup 2012!



While I love being a soccer mom I seriously wonder how much my heart can take in these high pressure, so close games. I have to walk and pace around the field to ease up the gitters I feel as I watch. It is so fun and the boys make us all so proud. Win or lose they play hard and keep their heads up. But, boy it is fun to come out on top!



Congratulations boys!! It was sure fun to watch!

Valentine's Day Cuties

While I believe that Valentine's is a day for lovers and not really about children it's still fun for the kids to do their Valentine's day card exchange. McKinley and Evan enjoyed preparing and sharing their Valentine's with their classes. They also enjoyed all the lovely Valentine's they received from their friends and classmates.


McKinley was a good sport and let me do hearts into her hair. Unfortunately I didn't take photos until after school and it was a bit messy, but you get the idea.

Happy Birthday Ethan!!

Today is Ethan's 14th birthday and we celebrated bright and early (since Ethan loves mornings!) He chose breakfast burritos for his breakfast and then we gathered the family together for him to open his presents. This year he sore up and down that he only wanted one thing...a laptop. He has saved for 2 years to be able to go half on it with us and even though we have 4 other computers in our house he wanted his own full size laptop. I wanted to award his saving power and so...he got it! Since it was such a big item we had everyone go in on it. So thank you to grandparents...Ethan has a huge smile on his face!

It's funny to think that Ethan is only now turning 14. He's always been an old soul and so every birthday seems a little behind for him. I will say he's starting to act more like his age than he used to, but he is such a good kid it's hard to remember that he's just a teen. He's smart, organized, motivated, loving, kind, caring, positive, peaceful, pleasant, thoughtful, generous, intelligent, thrifty, and funny. He has a lot of people who love him and that's because he's just so darn loveable! Happy Birthday Ethan!

January??

So, January has come and gone and I didn't blog about anything!

January included a quick trip for me to Texas to deal with our house there. The renters were moving out and so it was time to check up on the house and get it ready to put it on the market again. So, I was able to go and stay with some great friends and do a little checking up on things. It was so nice to be warm and visit with old friends there. As for the house it was a bigger mess than I had hoped, but it was not trashed. It needed a good cleaning and some fresh paint. Also, there is an issue with the upstairs deck that has to be attended to by the builder. Hopefully we will get that repaired and be able to put the house on the market. I want nothing more than to be rid of the house. It is what holds us back the most. All our money is tied up in that house and the mortgage payments are all ours while it sits empty! Lucky us. The market in Texas seems to have picked up a bit and with any luck we'll be able to get the house sold by summer.

January also meant it was time to get some skiing done! January is learn to ski/snowboard month in Utah and there are some fantastic deals for Utah residents at the local ski resorts. This year the family headed to the Canyons for a great day of ski/snowboard lessons and lunch. Unfortunately there are no pictures to document this event...cameras and ski hills are not too compatible. I do have a video of Evan snowboarding and McKinley skiing if I can figure out how to upload it to the computer. Ethan even enjoyed the day and was happy to try a new challenge. Austin and David took a snowboarding lesson so they are much more confident snowboarders now. I stayed home, slept in, and did a whole lot of nothing that day! I do like to ski, but not all that much and prefer to ski on the blue/green runs all day with my friend LeeAnn. Unfortunately, they had a missionary leave, two weddings close together, and a new job that prevented my skiing partner from coming out. We didn't have much snow until the end of January anyways, so this may be a year off for me. We'll see. I may still go before the end of the season.

So now, February is here and we're excited for the Spring. It's been a delightfully warm winter here in Utah and I'm not complaining about that at all. I hate the cold and this winter has been pretty warm, so it's all good. David is headed out to Texas again to finalize things with the house and get it on the market. We have a soccer tournament in St. George (=warm!) over President's day weekend. School is marching on towards summer and spring will renew my heart with it's arrival!

So goodbye January...bring on Spring!

What a Wonderful Merry Christmas!

This Christmas was a wonderful one! We intentionally cut way back and simplified things and still it was wonderful! What a great lesson to learn. We started out the morning by seeing what Santa brought. Then we headed off to church for a great musical program. That really set the tone for a nice Christmas day. Remembering what the season is all about.

After the service, the children were more than ready to go home to give and receive their presents. We took turns passing out presents to each other and then opening them. The rule was you couldn't get your own present from under the tree, you had to be gifted by someone else. That worked out really well.
This year the children received things like a snowboard, a karoake machine, new ski clothes, a sleeping bag and pad, and a bunch of board games. David and I received our Real Salt Lake season tickets, a date night certificate at the spa for both of us, and a gift card for me to buy some clothes! As a family we also purchased canvas's of our family pictures to hang up this year!


Christmas eve we celebrated with the traditional Christmas PJ's!

After opening presents and packing up the car we headed over to see David's Grandma. We were her earliest visitors this year and we got her all to ourselves! It was wonderful to feel of her spirit and to share our Christmas joy with her.
After picking up Grandma Libby from the airport we headed up to Park City to see my side of the family. It was a fun evening filled with giggles and stories and some delicious stew and roast chicken. It was a low key dinner this year that seemed to fit in just perfectly with our holiday!

We found ourselves pretty tired at about 9pm and all headed to bed for a good night's rest. It had been a long, beautiful, enjoyable Christmas day!

Zoo Lights

This year we decided to go and see the lights they have at the Hogle Zoo here in Salt Lake City. We knew it was going to be cold...but it was FREEZING!! There was a slight wind and bitter coldness, but it was fun. We bundled up the best we could (we've added a few items to our Texas wardrobe this past year) and cruised through the zoo to see all the different animal lights.

Many of the animals were actually out and about. Some we snoozing and we just looked at them, but the nocturnal animals were active and moving around. We really enjoyed the reptile house with it's more tropical temperature inside!

We made our way through all the displays and stopped at a few of the heaters spread out around the zoo to defrost our extremities before moving on. All in all it was enjoyable. But I have to say...I'm still a warm climate kind of girl. One night a year is good, but I wouldn't want to do many more.

Merry Christmas from Zoo Lights 2011!

Smith progressive dinner

One of the funnest traditions we have is the Holiday Progressive Dinner. It started about 10 years ago when everyone agreed that we wanted to see everyone else's homes decorated for Christmas. So we started our progressive dinner where we go from house to house and eat all along the way! This year started at Mark and Maylenes with some delicious appetizers. Then it was off to the Carman's for the salad course.


The main dish of ham, rolls, and potatoes was served at Nana and Grandads, finishing up with dessert at Mike and Mischele's home.

Gathering everyone up several times and driving from Lehi, to Highland, to Draper adds a lot of time to the dinner, but it's such a fun event. Plus, it allows us to digest a little while we drive to the next stop!
Much fun was had between all the families and getting together is one of the greatest blessings of the holidays! We are lucky to have such a great family and it's fun to see everyone get along and enjoy each other. Merry Christmas to all and to all...a great night!