Sawyer is on the MOVE!!

I can not believe how fast my baby is growing up. It makes me a little sad. I wish he could stay my baby forever, but then again, it will be nice when he can actually feed himself and dress himself, etc.

This week Sawyer learned to crawl. He has been so close for so long. He started out getting into the crawling position and rocking back and forth then sitting up again. He then started to do push ups or planks and rock a bit. He learned is he moved his arms he could rotate in a circle while on the floor. He thought this was pretty cool for about ten minutes. He tried to move his legs a bit but just never quite got the hang of it. When he did get the hang of using his legs he legs moved and his arms didn't. He almost did a roll. It was hilarious. He eventually figured out how to move his legs and arms together to get to places he wanted to go. Look out house, you are in for it now!!! He has already made it down the hall all by himself and he is currently crawling around the living room getting into books and my boots. Lovely. - Just a side note as I was typing he just pulled himself to a standing position on the couch. First time ever. He will be walking before we know it.

Cache Valley Appreciation

I love living in Cache Valley....well most of the time when it is above freezing. It is so beautiful here. I woke up last Monday morning to clear skies and clear air. That does not happen often in Cache Valley in the winter. I wanted to take full advantage of this opportunity to be able to be outside for extended periods of time. It is times like these when I have a Cache Valley appreciation moment.

I have had a bad case of Spring fever this past week. It has been above freezing and the inversion has cleared which means Sawyer and I have been going running. It is like Heaven. I forget how much I love to run until I go again. It does stink when you have to get back into shape though, which is where I am right now, but it is so nice to be out in the fresh air instead of trying to do a workout video inside. I plan to take full advantage of my break from Jillian and Bob and enjoy every minute outside before the inversion and bad weather is back :)

AGGIES

Over the Christmas break we were able to go to an Aggie Basketball game. The games are so much fun to go to. We are huge fans can you tell?

Santa Found Us

This Christmas we were so spoiled. We went down to my grandparents for the holiday. I love going to my grandparents. Their home is my second "home". They always make us feel so welcome. It is also really fun to go there because my uncle lives right up the road so my cousins come and visit often, which means lots of late nights and laughing. While at my grandparents we decided to go to Richfield and have a little day out. We ended up going to the movies. I was a little worried because we had Sawyer and lets face it what 7 month old can sit and be quiet for a couple of hours. He did so good though. He ate and then fell asleep on his dad. Travis has a knack for putting him to sleep. We ended up seeing "True Grit". It was really fun to go especially with the Grandparents my grandpa loves westerns. Rowdy and Vanessa were with us as well, we had to pick up some odds and ends presents.

Christmas eve night I had the worst headache of my entire life. It is too bad nobody told Sawyer. He decided he needed to get up twice that night. I guess he was so excited for Santa to come. Travis is so good to me though. He got up with Sawyer the second time at 5:00 AM and let me sleep. Travis was so excited to open presents but we had to wait for Vanessa to come back from Beaver so we had to eat breakfast before we could open the gifts. I know it was killing Travis. When we finally got to see what was under the tree Santa decided to spoil us. He left me a sewing machine.

I was so excited. I thought he forgot but Santa

came through for me. I am so excited to be crafty. My mom spent and afternoon teaching me how to use the machine, she used to be a Home Economics Teacher. My mom spoiled me this year and got me a peacoat. I was so excited. She got my sisters coats last year but since I was pregnant she didn't want to get me one that wouldn't fit right. My sisters got us a deep freeze for Christmas too. Travis got a new tennis racquet. I have no idea how he was able to shake the

box and figure that out but he did, that is why I never put his presents out until the night before. Sawyer got lots of toys and clothes, thank goodness because he is moving sizes. He wasn't too interested in opening presents though. Maybe next year.

We had a delicious lunch over at my Uncle Todd's house. Prime rib, funeral potatoes, rolls, homemade root beer, I love family dinners. After dinner we headed up to the hills to go shooting a Smith Family Tradition. No family party would be complete without guns.

We were able to talk to Krista on the phone. She is in Bolivia on a mission. The phone kept cutting in and out but it was good to hear her voice. I hope it didn't make her too homesick. It was so much fun to spend Christmas with family. I love the Holidays.

Family Pictures

We are so grateful for Travis' cousin Celestyn for taking the time to take a few photos for us to commemorate this time of year. She even braved a drizzle of a rain storm to get some pictures. I was not happy about the rain storm. It is so frustrating to do your hair only to get in the humidity and become a frizz ball. Oh well, she did a really good job. Thanks again, we loved them.

We just loved these pictures with our little boy. We are happy he smiled really big for us. I was a little worried because the little stinker refused to take a nap all day before these pictures. He also had to go for his 6 month check up with our pediatrician. He doesn't find it entertaining to be examined.

I was really bummed it was so foggy the day we took the pictures. I kept looking at the weather forecast to find a day that would work the best. I would look at it would say the day was supposed to be partly cloudy and then the next time I would look like an hour later it would say it was raining. You just can't win against Mother Nature.

Holiday Family Party

Happy Holidays!! I am so excited for this time of year. I love the smell in the air, the crazy shoppers, the food- oh the food, the spirit, the colors, the lights, basically I love everything about this time of year, but who doesn't? I am so happy this year we have our little bundle of joy to spend the holidays with us. I have no idea what to get Sawyer for Christmas though. He would really prefer that I let him eat all of the wrapping paper and wrinkle the paper. That would keep him entertained for ages. Toys not really on his list of things he likes. He has an attention issue.

This past weekend we got together with my family to have our annual holiday party. It was fun to see everybody. I forget how loud and crazy those parties are. There is always a lot of loud laughter, which may be a bit sinful according to the bible but it is worth it. The food was amazing, thanks for all those who contributed. I especially liked the Kneaders Raspberry Bread Pudding. I have never tried it before but it was pretty much heaven in a pan. This year Dan decided we should play a game as a family and have prizes. The game of choice was Bunco, the game needed to accommodate a lot of people. It was CHAOS but a lot of fun. I won curd and new cheddar cheese from the Beaver Cheese Factory. I love that stuff. In my opinion it was definitely the best prize!! I did get the most Bunco's out of the entire group. I am sad I didn't get any photos of the momumentous occasion, maybe next year. Merry Christmas to all!

Lets All Give Thanks

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun this year. What is better than lots of good food and family? We were a little worried at first we would not be able to make it down for The Feast. The Blizzard of all Blizzards was supposed to strike Northern Utah on Tuesday. We had planned to leave on Wednesday due to work and other circumstances, and honestly when is the weatherman ever right? Well the weatherman was actually right on this time. Logan had a horrible blizzard on Tuesday. We seriously got like 10 inches at our house in two or three hours. It was insane. However, once the storm passed and the morning came we were able to pack up and leave. Somethings just look so much better in the morning. It was really fun to leave on Wednesday because our friends, Adam and Julianne, were also headed down south so we either followed or lead them on the way down.

Thursday morning we woke up early and headed over to Fremont to spend Thanksgiving with Travis' Aunt Janette and Uncle Joe's family. It was a lot of fun to spend the day over there. The food was awesome and the company was even better. Joe runs The Sportsman Ranch and decided it would be fun to have the boys go and shoot some chukars and pheasants after dinner. I contemplated going but staying in the warm house was too enticing. Sawyer and I actually took a nap about the whole time the boys were hunting. On the way home from Fremont we decided to go an alternate route and go through Circleville to surprise my family. It was fun to see everybody. I am the only one in my whole Smith Family that is on the off year so everybody minus Krista- who is in Bolivia on a mission, was there.

On Friday we spend the day down in Minersville with Travis' mom and sister. We decided we would not be participating in Black Friday shopping. After all the stories I am kind of sad I missed the madness. Maybe next year. I am just not that type of shopper, I am pretty low key. We just stayed at Katie's and played games.

Saturday was an exciting day for my nephew Spencer. He was able to be baptized. I am so proud of him. Honestly, I can not believe he is 8. I am getting so old. I swear just the other day he was Sawyers age. It was so much fun to see all the Yardley and Smith family. I love the support they all offer. Jared did such a good job. Travis gave such a good speech about the Holy Ghost for the baptism. After the baptism we had a dinner. I love family dinners. We headed back to Mariah's to visit with my dear sweet grandparents. I love my grandparents. Nobody could ask for better ones than mine. Beaver has an annual craft fair the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I wish we would have made it to it earlier, we only made it to see Santa. After the fair they have a light parade. Not too many people in the parade this year. I swear it used to be bigger. It was still good though. My cousins, Lonnie and Heidi had an awesome float. Vanessa promised Spencer we would go play basketball after. Apparently, it has been a really long time since I played. I am so uncoordinated. I blame it on the pregnancy. It was a lot of fun. Travis, Spencer and I totally cleaned up, Mariah and Vanessa didn't have a chance. Again, Vanessa I am so sorry about the bruise.

Sunday was supposed to be another big storm. I really need to start trusting the weatherman. We went to Minersville for church and by the time church was out it was a jungle out there. We decided we would leave, that we have traveled in way worse but after getting on the freeway and only moving 8 miles in an hour we turned around and went back to Beaver. Thank goodness though there were like 100 + crashes throughout Utah.

Monday was such a better day to travel. We headed out with blue skies and wind. When we got close to Salt Lake we were informed Travis' Aunt Madelyn and Uncle Doug were flying in to take Johnny to the MTC. We decided since they don't get to the mainland often we better wait and say Hi. To burn some time we went to IKEA. That is such an awesome store. We finally met up with them to say Hi. It wasn't for very long but it was nice to see family.