DECEMBER??? Where has it gone?

I could just kick myself!! I really really want to be consistent with this blog! This December was one of the most fun and memorable Decembers we have had in such a looooonnnng time. I can not believe that I haven't been documenting daily!! Hopefully I can do an okay job of catching up?

December 1st we started a new family tradition..... "Christmas by the fire." Each night we would gather by the fire for a special story, scripture, song and small treat to try to help remind us about the true meaning of Christmas. This turned out to be a very special and spirtitual time for our little family - one that I'm sure we will carry on for years to come. Some nights we had longer time than others, but we made it a point to gather together and have at least a small thought and some special "together time."

We had a "secret elf" deliver the 12 days of Christmas for the Smagner family.....
Smith + Wagner = Smagner (Brian, Annie and Linc are living with us). Each day the secret elf brought us something that we could do together as a family. In a day or two (because I want to remember all of this) I will post pictures of each of the days activities - it was so much fun waiting each day for him to come deliver us a special prize...... then getting together to enjoy each activity as a family. It was so great to have so much family together time. I love these little guys, and time is flying by so quickly that it has been fun to slow down a bit and cherish these cute faces!

Not that we haven't already had a blast for the month.... just to add more fun - Annie and I decided to host a Christmas Eve party. We knew we were going to have a big clan joining us for Christmas this year, so we thought we'd make the best of it and turn it into a Holiday Bash! We invited everyone to our "Ugly Christmas Sweater Party" No one was allowed without an Ugly Christmas sweater. We ate, ate, ate, and ate some more! We had a beautiful photo op... which you can see how lovely we all looked!! I was laughing soooooo hard - everyone did such a great job with their "cute" Christmas ensembles!! We then voted on the best sweater..... Kev took the prize. After our photo op, we played some serious BINGO!! then moved on to Rock Band! Finally the Secret Elf delivered some twinner jammies shirts for everyone and it was time to settle down and hope that Santa would come for a visit. Not only did he visit..... he delivered lots of fun stuff for EVERYONE!!

It definitely has been a December to Remember that is for sure!!

Partners in crime!!

Dawson and Linc.... fixing a snack

Today, Annie (my sister-in-law) and I were downstairs finishing up our morning exercise. We have started a new competition around here..... For every 1/2 hour of exercise you get 1 point. For every treat you eat you have to subtract a point. The contest ends November 27th and whoever has the most points WINS the pot.... the pot is cash that has to be spent on something fun!!! No bills. Anyway, we were finishing up our routine when we heard a small crash from upstairs??? As I ran upstairs to find out what was going on..... there were my little "partners in crime" Dawson and Linc (my nephew ) had gotten a stool, gotten in the pantry - found the bread, peanut butter and the honey all by themselves. They were so cute, sitting at the table making their own peanut butter and honey sandwiches. The crash was just the butter knife falling to the floor from the drawer - so no biggie really - just the huge mess from peanut butter all over the table and the boys.

FINALLY..... I'm going to start this stinkin blog!!!

Here we go..... I have been wanting to start a blog for forever now - I have just not taken the time to figure out how, soooooo here we go.

I am really excited to be able to document all of the fun - and not so fun things that we do as a family. This is hopefully going to relieve me of some of my guilt for not keeping a journal over the past 12 years?????? Also, life is just getting so hectic that my scrapbooking hobby has taken a major back seat. The reality is, is that it probably will stay in the back seat for the next little while - so sad. Hopefully this will be able to make up for that loss in some small way.

So a quick update as to what is going on with our little family and a good start to my new journal. Matt and I have 3 of the cutest boys ever.

Stockton, our oldest is now 10 years old. He is incredibly smart and loves learning about history. His current fettish is anything having to do with Egypt. He is in Karate and really loves that. Stox is also learning how to cook, he makes us brownies (way toooo much) they are the best brownies around and his new specialty is German pancakes - delish!! He is also pretty amazing when it comes to the computer, in fact, he has his own blog sight - and loves it when people check it out. It is http://www.tresurehuntersandmore.blogspot.com/ he would love a comment or two.

Jaxson, our middle kiddoe is now 9. He just finished an awesome season of playing football for Riverton Silverwolves. He loved it from the start!!! Loved going to practice, loved the game! It took a few games for him to get brave, but once he figured out how awesome it was to get a tackle..... he was on fire!!! Check out the pictures of him. He was one of the smallest kids out there - but that didn't matter - he was taking all of them down. It was so much fun to watch him. I also got the pleasure of being the Team Mom. It was an incredibly busy job, but a ton of fun to get to be so involved and get to know each of the kids on the team. Jaxs loves life..... he is such a fun kid to be with, he is great at Math and loves to hang with buddies.

Dawson....... crazy number three - is now 3 and very soon to be 4. He is sooooo full of life and energy. That kid makes me smile so much. He has his Mommy and Daddy so wrapped around his litttle tiny fingers - he pretty much gets away with any and everything. Dawson loves Thomas, Spongebob, Spiderman, Star Wars and pretty much anything his big brothers love!!! He loves to snuggle and I am so excited to be starting this blog to capture the millions of funny things he does on a daily basis!!! He is a crack up and soooooo stinkin cute!!!

Matt and I are about to celebrate our 12th Anniversary and we couldn't be ANY more in love than we are now!! We have had a "CRAZY" and incredibly rough 2008. Probably the hardest year of our marriage, and we are stronger now more than ever. We definitely know that with prayer and faith that trials can make you stronger!! I am so lucky to have such an amazing guy in my life!!!

I am now going to try to figure out how to post some cute pictures and make this little blog "cute" hopefully all will go well!! I am excited to post and like I said before "journal" our family happenings. If anyone has any fun or good tips - I would love them.