Smith Family Tradition

Ever since I became a Smith I joined in on their Christmas Eve Tradition by going to an Assisted Living Center to sing/play instruments to share some Christmas Spirit with some people who might be lonely this time of year. It's been a heart warming tradition that reminds us all that this time of year is one for LOVE, LIGHT and JOY.

It was really heart warming for me to see my boys sharing their talents as well. I remember my first Christmas as a Smith, this tradition was all very new to me. But here we are 12 Christmases and 3 boys later and we're still dong it. Usually we do it on Christmas Eve. But with Christmas Eve being on Sunday this year it made it a little tricky. Plus my parents wanted to celebrate Christmas with them on that day anyway because we usually have dinner with them on the 4th Sunday. Luckily that worked out with everyone on my side and Jesse's side of the family. So we moved our traditional Christmas Eve Caroling to the 22nd.

After we were all done with our performances we went back to Mom and Dad's for dinner and a little hang out. Ryker hasn't been feeling all to well the past few days, but with a little Motrin he seemed to perk up.

Jesse and I both work tomorrow so the boys were planning on spending the night since Mom and Dad were watching them tomorrow.

My New Found "Hobby"

Some girlfriends from the gym we started a TRAIL TUESDAY weekly group. Whoever can go, goes. We started it at the end of September and we have been going almost every week. And I just love it. It totally fills my happy bucket to get out in Nature. I genuinely love getting to the top of a steep mountain and look out over the AMAZING views from where we came from. It truly is the best. 

Here are some of my favorties...

Mount Aire (Sept 26)

 Parrish Canyon Trail (Oct 3)

 Grandeur Peak (Oct 10)

Lake Blanch (Oct 17) ---(Tara, Kenz, Sid and myself) It's generally the 4 of us that goes together, or a mixture of us. Give or take a few. Anyone and everyone is invited who wants to come.

 
Elephant Rock up Mueller Park Canyon (Oct 20)

Webb Canyon (Nov 7)

 Adams Canyon (Today) This might be one of my favorites.

The waterfall at the top was just amazing. My friend Tara and I explored up and over the top of it and it was such a blast. 

We plan on going through out the winter too. Which will be so nice to endure the winter season.  I love getting out and just enjoying talking together about whatever. When we are done I feel so happy.

November in a Nutshell

The time certainly is going by way faster than I can keep up. Our lives really are so fully blessed with many good things. For time sake I'll just wrap up November in a nutshell.

Nov 11: Veterens Victory 5K

Weeks leading up to this the boys were sent home with a job to collect pledges for this race. To my astonishment they went out on their own door to door through our neighborhood to gather pledges for the Veteren's. I love their bravery and willingness to do something so good. I loved even how excited they were about doing it. They would come home and show me all of their collections. I wish I could have been a fly on their shoulders as they were talking with our neighbors.

When they day of the race came I was really excited that we could all do it together as a family. Ryker(9.5yrs old) told me that his goal was to beat his time from last year (30:25) and not only did he succeed in that, but he crushed it with a time of 27:05.  And Cy (6.5yrs old) chose to run instead of riding his bike and finished in 33:09. 

I was blown away by these boys. I don't think I could even run a 5K that fast when I was their ages. It's quite impressive to me. 

Nov 16
Fynnie is constantly making us laugh. He came into the bathroom on this morning just so proud of himself for putting these glasses on by himself. I just love this little boy. I want to freeze him at this fun age. He is busy and gets into everything. But I will take it. He really is the life of our little family.

Nov 21: Mom's and Muffins
The boys always look forward to this. We get to the school early and we get to read together and snack on muffins. We are still steadily reading the Book of Mormon every day and because we were left with little time at home to read our chapter that morning, we read it together at the school.

Can I just say how much I have been loving our Book of Mormon time together. We started it together in Aug 2016 and it has been a true Joy. We have been reading in Alma lately and I usually have a hard time getting through Alma. My dining table I had these decorative fabric pumpkins that served well for Halloween and Thanksgiving. I put them to use while we were reading about all the wars in Alma. Each pumpkin would represent a different Army or captain. I would us those to help give a visual to Ryker and Cy. They seemed to really enjoy it and I got more out of it trying to explain it in a simple manner to them. I would feel so happy when I could see that they were getting the story and really enjoying it.

Nov 23: Thanksgiving
This year Jesse was off the whole weekend. So yay for that!
We started out the Thanksgiving day with the traditional GPP workout. I used to go by myself, but eventually Jesse started to join me. But this year my whole family wanted to go and it made me so happy to share my passion for health and fitness with the people I hold closest to my  heart.

I have SO MUCH to be grateful for and 4 of them are my husband and 3 boys!

The rest of the day was spent with the Smith Family. I honestly don't know how I got away without getting any pictures. It was probably due to the fact that I was so busy in the kitchen up until we went to Jesse's parents house. Then we all ate and we went and saw the new movie COCO with the whole family.

That movie was family centered and I Just loved that. It was based off of the Mexican culture and their celebration of The Day of the Dead. The whole movie was focused on knowing and remembering your ancestors. There was a moment in the movie that the main little boy and his great-grandma shared together that was very tender. Tears welled up in my eyes because I have a tender place in my heart for my family.

I found out afterwards from Heidi that she was bawling during that moment as well because of Fynn. She was holding him on her lap and he looked at the screen, pointed and said "Uh Grandma" and hen turned and wrapped his arms around her neck and laid his head on her shoulder. He totally knew. When Heidi was telling me about it, she could hardly keep her composure. He's such a sweet boy and really loves his grandparents.

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Nov 24: Black Friday
It has been irregularly warm for this time of year, so we wanted to take advantage of the outside. At the last minute we put together a little family hike before Andrew and Emily had to drive back up to Logan.

I love seeing those 2 brothers smiley and happy with each other. I certainly hope they will stay that way their entire lives.

I'm always looking for a good photo opportunity and when times get desperate to prop your phone up I improvise by wedging it perfectly between a  branch.

Nov 26: Thanksgiving Continued
A few years ago my mom started having our family do Thanksgiving dinner on the Sunday following Thanksgiving. It's been working out for everyone so well we have continued it.

After we ate dinner we each took a turn expressing our gratitude for each other and our many blessings. The feeling that was felt around that table was tender. We were all in tears by the end of it. Even my Grandpa (who I have never seen that side of him before). As we shared with each other I got thinking that it is SO easy to focus on the little things in our lives that may not be perfect, out of place or just not how we want it. But in reality we have SO much to be thankful for. I loved all the little reminders of individual things we are grateful for.

My mom just got a new saying in her kitchen that reads...
"The things you take for granted... someone else is praying for."
I just love that. What a great reminder to be thankful for the little things.

Happy Halloween from Nintendo World

Halloween this year was fun. I didn't go all out on making our costumes like I did last year, but buying things made for a less stressful time. I did make the boys overalls though. They only took me 2 half days worth. It was sweet. 

 I love this picture because the boys were trying to be like the real Mario Brothers in the game.

 Jesse doesn't really care to dress up.I tried to get him to be Bowser, but he wasn't feeling it this year, but when I came across this shirt I knew it was perfect.

Wild Rose Trail

 Since the weather is so warm and the mountains are painted with the most beautiful colors right now, we took the family on a short hike not too far from our house. It was SO GREAT! I don't know if I'm just finally noticing how beautiful fall is, or the leaves are extra spectacular this year? Even just driving around on the roads I noticed how colorful the entire mountains are. It's incredible. The mountains have been pulling me to them so much lately and I love being in them.

I remember as a young woman thinking how terrible a hike sounded. I guess I must be getting old, because I genuinely enjoy a good hike. Especially with my boys.  And what a better way to have FHE than in the mountains together.

At the top of the Wild Rose Trail there was such a pretty view of the whole city.

As we were up at top we were watching the sun start to set and I noticed that the boys were jumping and they wanted me to take a picture of them.

Then I had to laugh when Fynn falls into play with his older brothers. Fynn loves his older brothers and copies them all the time. This picture makes me laugh because Fynn reminds me of a little ET al squatting down like that.

CrossE Ranch

It's been a tradition to go to CrossE Ranch every year as a family and the past couple of those years our friends (The Jenkins) have joined us in that tradition. The Ranch has grown so much because this year it was bigger than ever. Which made for a fun time for the kiddos. 

 Between the Cornpit, hayslides, bounce pads and cornmaze we had such a good time.

 The weather was comfortably warm, which makes me so happy for October. I love me a warmish fall. No need to hurry into winter just yet.

All-Star Game

We were all looking forward to this game. The All-Stars Game. The game was so much fun to watch. The played the teams as the Dark Side and the Light Side. Ryker played on the Dark Side team and they won 12-6. And I know I'm his mom and think Ryker is dang near perfect, but I would have to say Ryker was the All-Star of the All-Star Game.  

 It was rainy but they all came out with Smiles...

 and muddy knees.

 So proud of Ryker! He'd such a stud!!!

Ryker's Tournament Games

Ryker's Team had a great great Season and he personally shined. He was joining a team that was established a little bit already and with a new coach. His first practice he felt like the coach didn't like him very much and he didn't get the ball all that often. Jesse and I both told him that if he stayed true to himself, listened and followed the Coaches instructions he'll be noticed. And that's exactly what happened. 

As the season progressed his name became quite known. We heard parents on the opposing teams say "Oh we are playing Ryker's team" like they knew they were going to lose. Not "we are playing the Packers" but "Ryker's Team". Is it a sin that I felt so much pride for him? 

Ryker constantly had good plays and often made alot of the touch downs. I truly felt like he was an All-Star. Well this season the coaches got to pick 2 players from their team that they thought would be really good for the new All-Star Game. And Ryker was picked from the Packers Team. Matter of fact I found out from my brother Tyson (who runs the entire Flag Football program), that Ryker's coach was the only coach that DID NOT just pick his son but really picked someone who would do well. 

Well tonight was the tournament game and Ryker had the biggest desire to win 1st place in the Tournament. And being 2nd seed they really stood a good chance at that. They won the 1st tournament game, but the 2nd game which would take them into the Championship game they Lost. It was against the 3rd seed team and it was one really intense game. It was one of the most turnover games he's ever played in. Which made for a devastating loss for the team. They were all in tears at the end of the game. Oh as is mom I naturally want him to win them all and be awesome in every game...especially when Ryker is crying in my arms that he hasn't won 1st place yet. 

But it's good for him right? And taking 3rd place overall is still really good. The Packers had a great season and I loved watching this dude pour his whole heart into every game. 

I have so many pictures and videos of him with the ball. He's so much fun to watch play.

The coach of this team was just the greatest. I loved how much he worked with Ryker. I feel like Ryker really grew this season. Are we ready for Tackle next fall? We shall see.

2nd Place CHAMPS!!!

Cy's team took 2nd place in the Playoff Tournament today. They had such a good season. Cy really showed a big difference in how he played. This season he made an effort in watching the ball, going after the players flags and being apart of the team. Our (Me, Jesse and Grandparents) only complaint was we feel like the coach didn't really play Cy all that much. I know he is still learning the game, but it felt like Cy sat on the sidelines alot. Especially during crucial plays. But it's part of the it right?

I really love that I get to watch these boys play. It sounds silly but I love that I get to be cheering on the sidelines at a football game instead of having girls. I have SO many people that feel sad for me that I don't have any girls. But I feel differently. How ungrateful would I be if I was sad about that? God has blessed me with 3 perfect boys who fill my life with so much joy.