Halloween is here

Well, Halloween came and Eden was so excited, I guess going to school and being around other children will bring in the excitement.  After all was said and done I realized that I didn't get a picture of all the kids together in their costumes, so here are pictures of the boys in their costumes and then a video of Eden in her costume at our ward fall festival doing the cupcake walk.

 Micah was our duck

 Enoch was our frog

Eden really wanted to be Cinderella, but we couldn't find a costume, so we did the next best thing, a fairy!  Since Micah and Enoch were the duck and frog we decided Eden was our pond fairy.

Our pumpkins, Eden designed hers herself. Happy Halloween!!

Happy Birthday Micah!!

I can't believe that it was a year ago we had our little Micah, and so much has happened, he has grown so much!! The kids were so excited to celebrate a birthday again, it's been since June that we had a family birthday, so we were due.  We blew up balloons and put them around the house.  They each picked out a gift at the dollar store and wrapped it for him.  Which was fun, since it was the older kids who unwrapped the presents for him too.  Micah is so funny, he loves to watch his siblings play and just laugh with them.  He has begun to try and take his first steps, I'm sure he'll be running with his siblings in no time.  We love our little Micah, we are so grateful he is apart of our lives.  Happy First Birthday Micah!!

 Our big ONE year old

 In case you don't know how to work your new toy, don't worry, Enoch will show you how it works...or maybe he'll take it away from you instead since it is a pretty cool toy

Wow mom, is this whole cake for me?!?

 

 Wow, this is so good...

 I just can't get enough of it...

 ok, maybe I've overdone it, that was a lot of frosting...

 Mom, I'm done, take it away now!!!

Brigham City Temple

Last month we had the opportunity to go visit the Brigham City Temple open house.  It was a long drive for the kids to go see the temple, but once they got there, they were not disappointed one bit!  Eden and Enoch have always had a fascination for temples, but now to go inside was just wonderful.  They loved the baptismal font (I was surprised it was filled with water and they let us walk right past it!! We were luck my kids didn't jump right in.)  They loved how there were flowers in all the circle windows.  We later learned that they were the peach blossoms, because of Brigham city's fame in peach orchards.  As we walked into the Celestial room, the kids were so amazed at the beauty and I just held Enoch and we talked about how it was Jesus' room, that really helped him understand how special that room was.  I'm so glad our kids love the temple.  After we left we went to Wendy's to get some food and Eden got out a piece of paper and drew a picture of the Brigham City Temple, a rectangle with two big spires, one on each side, and a bunch of circles all over the temple, a small flower in each one.  She showed it to me and said, "mom, this is the Brigham City Temple, it is my best friend."  How sweet our children are!!

 Eden outside the temple

 Oh how Enoch loves the temple, and their water features

 Walking outside the temple

Our little family in Brigham City

Summer Fun: Part 2

We attempted our biggest road trip as a family this year  We went to visit my sister in Illinois!  We spent a few days driving there and spent a week in Illinois and visited Nauvoo and saw the new pageant there as well.  The kids loved it and are still asking when we can go back to Illinois.

 Here we are outside the Winter Quarters Temple, it was a great stop to see a Temple after a long drive.

 Here we are outside the Carthage Jail, it was a hot day, thank goodness Dairy Queen was just across the street.

 Here we are with our cousins at their pond, we had fun feeding the fish and finding all of the bull frogs. 

 Here is Aaron and I sitting on our bench at the Nauvoo Temple, here is were we got engaged almost 7 years ago.

 Eden and Enoch with cousins Jesse and Kori at the Nauvoo Temple, now one of the kids' new favorite Temple, a highlight on our trip.

 Aaron and Shea pulling all of our kids in the handcart during the evening activities in Nauvoo before the pageant. 

 We had fun playing in the kids area in Nauvoo, Eden wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to dress up, even Micah.  

 Enoch with his hat, that's as much dressed-up that he would get.

 Karla and Eden dressed up

 We had fun on the oxen ride, it was really bumpy, I'm grateful for our van that is smooth and goes 75+ mph.

 Eden and the Nauvoo Temple one last time!

 One thing that made the trip so nice was to see cousins in Iowa.  We got to stay with them going out to Illinois and coming home.  They were a big highlight for all of us.  We miss our Smith cousins, we hope to see you again too.

Summer Fun!! Part 1

Summer was sure fun, but now it's over.  Here are some fun pictures of where we went this summer:

1. I went to Disneyland with my mom and sisters.

Here is us with us with Cinderella at the front gate of Disneyland.

 Here is our beautiful view from the Disneyland Hotel, and the amazing swimming pool.  It was just a dream vacation!

 Here is Kerri and I in our beautiful Disneyland Hotel room.  Every night we had chocolates on our pillows, a beautiful touch to the magic.

 Here is us in our matching shirts and the castle.

 We sure love our mom.  This was a last big trip with our mom as she finishes her fight with cancer.  We will sure miss you mom!  Thanks for such a fun trip!!

A Mynson Newman's party?

For the past few months Eden has talked about doing a Mynson Newman's party.  What that means...I have no idea.  She came up with the phrase a few months ago and then just never let it go, but she would always talk about the Mynson Newman's party we're going to have and how much fun it will be.  Well as the summer approached, Aaron and I decided that we should have a Mynson Newman's party, just for fun.  We waited until cousins came to town and then asked Eden to help us plan the party.  Her cousin, Jessie, spent the night and the next morning I took the two girls out shopping for game prizes and candy for the pinata.  I made some doughnuts and Aaron had a pinata that the jr. high kids had made in a Spanish class so we were set to go.  My sister came with her five kids and I had my three, so it was a party.  We played bean bag toss, then we ate a doughnut off a string, we did bowling, but the best of all was the snowman pinata in the middle of July!! It was a lot of fun, but who or what Mynson Newman is....I don't think we'll ever know.  But I like what Jessie said about it: it was a Mynson Human's party...you are the Mynson, and we are the Humans!  Whatever it means, I'm glad we had fun.

 After the doughnuts...sugar all over our faces

Enoch's turn at the pinata

Camron's turn at the pinata...snowmen just don't do so well in the summer

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Aaron finally turned 33! All he wanted to do was spend time with our little family, so we went out of town...not too far out of town, but we thought it would be fun to drive up the canyon and get some lunch and go on a little hike.  We went to Heber and ate at Dairy Keen, Aaron and I hadn't been there since our Honey Moon, so it was exciting to go back, but as we went through Heber we were so surprised that there were so many others that were there as well!! Turns out it was the RAGNAR that weekend and I guess the best thing to do after you run the longest race of your life is to go out for a burger and fries and the Heber Dairy Keen, because it was PACKED!!  None the less, we enjoyed ourselves and found a great seat with a perfect view of the overhead train, the kids were thrilled!

   Micah's first taste of french fries, we can't go back now!!

  Sharing a drink, but Eden just can't get her eyes of the overhead train....and did you notice all of those fries, or all the ketchup? 

 Train tracks overhead, they were fun!

  Aaron and the kids outside Dairy Keen on the train

Then we went on our hike, Aaron wanted to do Stewart Falls, but we thought it might be too much, a kind lady at the trail head told us of another hike that was half the distance to a different waterfall, better for young kids.  Unfortunately, we never found that trail and went toward Stewart Falls, after half way on the trail we knew we weren't going to make it, so we turned around and made it back to the car before the kids collapsed.  It was fun, but next time we'll try a smaller hike, the kids were good sports about it, but tired that night.  It was a fun birthday, thanks Aaron!!

  On the trail, we sure got dirty!

 Enoch was sure a champ, hardly complained and covered in dirt.

  Eden said she sure loves hiking, she can't wait to do it again. 

  Enoch slowly making it down to the car after a long hike...what a champ!!

Let the summer fun begin!

Summer is finally here! We are looking forward to more time with daddy and the backyard.  The kids are excited for the popsicles and icecream, Enoch is always so good at getting it all over his face:
 

 

Eden is a little neater with her icecream, but not perfect. 

 

  

Eden loves to play dress up, but even more she loves to dress up her little brother: 

 

We turned around for a few minutes and Micah again was victim to the dress up queen, he's pretty patient and a good sport, Eden loves it!

For Grandma Linda

We love you grandma Linda, we hope you're out of the hospital soon, or that we can get our video chat to work, in the meantime, we hope you enjoy this video.

Family Pictures

The baby is now six months old, time to update the family picture on our wall.  We all got dressed up for spring break and took a stroll down the American Fork Amphitheater, and this is what we came up with:

 Here is the new Smith Family - 2012

 Our three beautiful and playful children

 Here are the girls...

 and here are the boys

 Keeping our sights on the Temple.