Christmas Time!

December is by far one of the busiest months of the year with parties, recitals, school performances,  etc., but I love every minute of it! Here are a few of our fun activities in the past couple of weeks with more to come!

Tonight we had our annual Christmas piano recital with Kris Smith! The kids did a fabulous job I was so proud of each of them! Our cousin Dax got to be in it this year, Mckay was so excited!

"Breath Of Heaven"

A fun Duet with Sister Smith

"We Three Kings"

McKay's favorite Christmas song is the theme song from Charlie Brown's Christmas. Kris gave him a choice and that is the song he chose to play for the recital. Too cute!

Christmas dance recital! They were all three wonderful. I'll have to try to upload some video.

 Every year as a child my Grandma would take all the girl cousins into Capital Theatre to see the Nutcracker. It was such a fun Christmas memory for me so over Thanksgiving break I surprised the girls with tickets to the Nutcracker. They were thrilled! We hadn't gone for a couple of years and really missed it! We got to get all dressed up and went out to lunch first then off to the show!  I had such a great time with my three girls and can't wait to go again next year! 

Bowling after our FHE lesson. The kids totally beat me(dad was well ahead of all of us)! I'll have to practice for next time! Afterwards? Ice cream at our favorite spot- Rite Aid!!

Happy Halloween!

 Bumble Bee Bria and her cute light up skirt at our ward Trunk or Treat

Cute Taia as a Flapper Girl. She looked adorable!

Family Home Evening at the Pumpkin Patch! Afterwards, we had a great time decorating caramel apples-yummy!!

Kamae with adorable Teacher Ashley

My little Princess

Utah trip!

During our trip to Utah we had the chance to visit the Beehive House, the Church History Museum, Austin's football game at Alta High School and the Lee Family Halloween Party...! We had a wonderful time and made many fun memories!!

Spinning wool

Love McKay's face in this one!

The kids loved the tours and the fun Pioneer games they provided for children at the Church History Museum during Conference Weekend. We were there for at least a couple of hours and had a hard time pulling them away from all the activities when it was time to go! We had a fantastic tour guide through the museum who had some fascinating insight to share with us about our church history.  It was neat for Bria and Case since they are studying church history in seminary this year.

                                       Brigham Young's home

                  Bria and Hadlee

                             Alta Hawks

      Uncle Jeffie and Lisanne

Mae Mae loved cousin Austin and followed him everywhere- too cute!

Conference Weekend

     Last month we had the opportunity to go to Utah to hear Grandpa speak in General Conference. It was a week filled with many family events. I love being in Salt Lake City for Conference there is a buzz in the air that I remember so well growing up. 

 Sunday morning we took the girls to "Music and the Spoken Word" before the first session of Conference. It was an amazing experience for them to listen to the choir live- absolutely beautiful! Afterwards we picked up the boys and headed back over to the Conference Center for the Sunday afternoon session. Grandpa did a great job, he spoke on "Courageous Parenting" the kids all loved seeing their grandpa up there!  Case and I enjoyed being able to take our four oldest into the Conference Center to see the Prophet and to be there for Grandpa's talk.  These are treasured memories and a wonderful experience they will always remember!

Crew's Baptism Day!

  Crew turned 8 years old on September 12th so we decided to have his Baptism in Utah over Conference weekend. Since my family lives there and Grandma and Grandpa Lawrence were flying in from Russia for General Conference, it was perfect! We were able to set up the baptism with my parents Stake in Centerville which was extra special for me since that was where I was also baptized. 

 Our dear friends Josh and Tiffany were driving in from California with their family for Conference and drove straight to the Baptism. That was such a fun surprise for Crew to have his friend Keenan there!

  We were thrilled to have many family and friends there to share such a special day!






                         
                  
After the Baptism we headed into Salt Lake to the Joseph Smith Memorial building to have dinner at the Garden Room. It was an absolutely beautiful evening and the views were stunning! I love SLC this time of year! It was so special to be there over our Anniversary weekend. We took the kids on a tour of the Joseph Smith building and where we had our reception 16 years ago!