Christmas Eve PJ's

It is amazing how Santa's elfs are able to deliver jammies to our doorstep every Christmas Eve. It is fun to have a whole house of "believers" and they were thrilled with the jammies!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas…from Chicago! We moved to Wheaton, just outside of Chicago last year. We’re learning to deal with the cold weather, and the kids love the snow already. Wheaton is a great community with close access to the city, good schools and great neighbors.

Austin is now 10 and continues to explore new activities. He loves to read, play sports, especially soccer and basketball, and is growing like crazy. His big accomplishment this year is being able to wear dad’s shoes – and having them fit (size 11)!

Kiersten turned 8 this year, and was baptized into the church. She is playing the piano, reading a ton and taking care of her little brother and sister. She has made lots of new friends, but misses being close to the beach.

Brandon, our 5 year old is such a sweet kid. He consistently thinks of others and is a joy to have around. He and Reagan are great friends and he looks out for her. We live a few houses away from his friend Davis, making Brandon very happy.

Reagan is 18 months now and is starting to establish her position in the family. She is a strong willed girl and keeps the others in line. She is quick to laugh and as quick to lay her head on your shoulder. We love having her in the family.

Marci and I stay busy running around with the kids and serving in the church. We like Wheaton and look forward to getting to know the area better. We’re thankful for our many friends and family members, their love and support. We’re mostly grateful for our Savior and hope each of you has a moment to consider him as we celebrate his birth.

With Love ,

the Smiths

marci.smith27@gmail.com

mattsmith1972@gmail.com

Christmas Eve Bowling

We were all excited to spend Christmas eve sledding with our friends...we were going out to lunch and then sledding. However, the weather did not cooperate. It was 30 and raining that day...YUCKY YUCKY weather.

Plan B was lunch at Portillo's and then BOWLING and arcade games. We have some fun friends here in IL but between the families there are so many kids(I think this day it was 16 kids). No one wanted to host all the hooligans so we thought we would take the show on the road and home to a clean house on Christmas Eve. Bowling was fun and we had the place to ourselves.

We were blessed with snow the next day and had a great time sledding on Saturday.

my baby girl is getting so big!!

Shedd Aquarium

I decided to take the kids to the aquarium on the 23rd of December...note to self next year. The aquarium was not crowded that day and it was fun to go to the city for the day but DO NOT DRIVE...TAKE THE TRAIN!

We drove into the city and had a nice day at the aquarium. However on the drive home it took us over 3 hours. The kids were tired and traffic was AWFUL!! We ended up stopping at a friends house from church half way home so everyone could go to the bathroom and get out for a minute. A few games of hide and seek with the Ross boys made the rest of the ride home bearable!

Piano Recital 12-18-09

The kids had a piano recital and they did a great job. Samantha is a very talented YW in our ward who also teaches the kids piano. We go to church with all these kids and it was fun to have a recital.

School Christmas Parties/Programs

December 18, 2009

Brandon had a program where they dressed up and performed for all the parents. He loves to sing and he was all smiles and so proud of his performance.





Kiersten had a party in her class. They always have a great time. Here are some of the kids in her class!


Neighbor and good friend Brenna.

Austin and his friend, Patrick.

Holiday Program 12-15-09

New video camera + holiday program at school = testing testing testing. Let's see how well this works.

School Christmas Program

This is the first school we have attended where they had a music program concert. The entire school did a performance and it was very impressive! They decorated with their own artwork.

1st Snow Storm of the Year

December 8th was really our first snowstorm of the year that was big enough for the kids to play in. It was really a pretty snow and gave the kids tons of snow to play in.


Reagan likes the snow like Marci likes the snow - from inside the house.

Pizza Making at Pal Joey's

Marci and I attended "trivia night" as a fund raiser for our local school. This may be a little hard to believe, but let me explain. We have a neighborhood school, with a couple hundred kids in k through fifth grade. It is a public school, but has a private school feel (in a good way) with small classes, close knit community events and lots of fundraisers.

So, we signed up for trivia night, which was a dinner, silent auction and trivia game, with each table pitted against the others. We were at a table with the Whites, and a few other couples that I had just met that evening. It turned out we won the trivia night. We had the right combination of knowledge of obscure items! It doesn't hurt that both the Smiths and Whites love to win either.

In addition to the trivia, we bought one of the "events" offered by the teachers. Kiersten's teacher's husband owns a local pizza parlor, Pal Joeys and offered to have our family come make pizzas and have dinner.

We were able to go back in the kitchen and make our own pizzas and see how the cooks work. The kids had a great time and Marci and I enjoyed the time and meeting the Harrison-Hamels.

Ward Christmas Party

These are not the best pictures but our ward Christmas party this year the kids acted out the nativity. Kiersten was asked to play Mary and Austin was a wise man. I think it is always good to participate. Austin thinks he is getting too old but he did a great job.

Getting our REAL Christmas Tree

Part of Marci's burden in life is dealing with the "traditions" that I try to start/carry on. One tradition I had as a kid, which I loved, was going to get a live Christmas tree. So, you guessed it, I dragged the family to the tree lot to pick out a tree. I paid the girls for these big smiles. Although, what UK fan is not smiling this year?

I dressed Brandon as a lumberjack to make the trip even more fun.

We just fit in the truck, every seatbelt taken and no room to spare. We have fun going out and about, plus I love driving the truck.


We've had a fake tree for the past few years, and decided this year to have the fake tree downstairs and a real tree in our entry way. We found a tall tree at the local zoo.



It was fun to walk through the lot picking through trees, the weather was cold and lots of Christmas lights. It started to bring the spirit and reminded me of going to the local tree lot in my dad's old GMC. Hopefully my kids will have the same good memories of getting ready for Christmas.