Christmas night costume contest....

Left to right: Summer, Dad, Bekah, Me, Taylor and Mom

It is Smith tradition (This is my first year participating) to dress up as goofily as you can then strut about the house being photographed..... The winner gets bragging rights all year.  It was hilarious!!!

Santa

 One of the Hotels that Joe manages had a really fun Christmas party.  We were able to stay there for free for two nights! It was super fun.  This Hotel is more like a resort.  Its located up in the mountains near Logan.  They had a Santa there for the kids.  Nolan had fun on Santas lap telling him he wanted a Bocugon and some Pokemon balls.  Shyloh just looked at us in agony like we were giving her away. 

 At least Shyloh enjoyed her candy cane! though she didn't get much out of it since we didn't take the wrapper off haha

It was so fun at the hotel.  We played ping-pong and explored. They have an indoor basket ball cort so Nolan and I rolled the ball around and made up different games.  They have a huge indoor pool with a giant jacuzzi and water fall.  We had so much fun!

I left my makeup on the dresser before the dinner and caught Nolan putting on eye shadow!
 

Lake Powell July 2011

 I had typed up this post and saved it then forgot about it.... der.  This was our Smith family vacation from last July to Lake Powell

Where do I begin! This was one of the funnest most adventurous trips I have been on in a long time.  My Dad rented a house boat at lake Powell for a week.  It was so fun. The weather was wonderful.  The water was cool but not cold.  We had lots of yummy food and many friends were there.  Aron and Wendy came with thier kids.  Summer and Cade were there.  Christie and paul Broderick came and of course Mom and dad with the kids.  The first night we slept on the top of the boat.  Little did I know what was going on around me as I slept.  At one point during the night I felt something big crawl across my face so I swapped it and it landed on Joe.  He immediately woke from it and batted it off to the side of our bed.  I had a hard time sleeping after that thinking of bugs crawling on my babies.  Shyloh was in her pack and play covered with a blanket so I wasn't as worried about her but Nolan was totally exposed sleeping near the side of the boat.  Finally I slept and woke to a horror  i never could have imagined.... There were spiders EVERYWHERE.  And not the normal little spiders you find in your house, these spiders were HUGE and scary looking. I stood up from my camp bed and my head went right into a spider web!  I am almost certain that the thing crawling on my face was a giant spider. We immediately left that spider infested beach in search for a less buggy campsite.  The remainder of the day was spent ridding the boat of our new passengers.  Everywhere we turned there was a spider but with the use of an old fly swatter and a broom we finally swapped the last one into the water.  There are now about 100 more spiders at the bottom of the lake. I guess during the night the spiders had crawled along the ropes we had used to anchor the boat.  They thought they could catch better insects on the boat.  We slept inside the next night though we never had another spider problem that bad again. 

This was one of the smaller ones! I didn't think to take a picture until all the huge ones were gone

Lake Powell was so fun!!! My favorite thing was visiting Rainbow bridge, so cool...

 

The landscape was so magnificent! I was just in awe! I took a million pictures but here are my favorites

 We had so much fun on the ski boat! We went to the dock and got ice cream and matching lake Powell shirts for the girls! We explored a few alleys of rock.  We skied and tubed to our hearts content.

 

Shyloh was so stinkin cute in her life vest! She didn't like it at all but got used to it by the end of the trip.

The house boat was fun too! We fished off the top and jumped off into the water.  We layed up there tanning, it was wonderfully warm!  We ate lots of super good food and had lots of laughs. 

Summer, Kayala and Sorin

My camera died half way through the trip so I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted.  I will never forget this trip and how much fun I had with people I love.

Surrogacy take II

 As many of you have heard I am in the process of doing a second surrogacy.  The most wonderful women found me on surrogatemother.com.  Her name is Helena and she is from California.  Helena and her dear husband were in the midst of a round of IVF when he tragically passed away.  She now has four of their precious embryos left and has asked me to carry them for her. I am so excited for this Journey! I could not have asked for a lovelier person to carry for. We went to visit and do my medical testing just before Thanksgiving.  Being there in California with Helena was the most fun I have had in a long time!! Helena was determined that we try every style of Asian eating available in CA.  San Francisco is the gateway to Asia she told us.  It was amazing!!!! We had Sushi, Tia, Japanese, Dim Sum and more. We went to little Italy and had gelato for the first time and loved it!.  She also took us to the San Francisco Museum of Science! It was amazing!!! We stayed with her in her amazing apartment which overlooked the city.  We had so much fun there with her in California.  We didn't want to leave!! She was so good with the kids and such a gracious host! We loved every minute there with her. I am so excited to start this journey with Helena. I know she will be an amazing mother and can't wait to help her get that gift!

More posts to come on the surrogacy so stay tuned ;o)

Here are some pictures from out trip

Yummy! Dim Sum! One of the coolest, Yummiest places I have ever eaten at! We loved it

Never too young to learn to use chop sticks

This butterfly flew over and landed right next to Nolans head while he was looking over the railing! The Museum was super fun! This is the amazon room.  Birds and butterfly's were flying about. So cool. 

Helena took us to see the San Francisco bridge! It was so cool

Helena took us to Pier 39! We each picked out a key chain and had chili bowls. It was so fun.  Nolan is huddling in the stroller.  He had a tummy ache and ended up throwing up that night.. poor guy

Creation

It is such a fulfilling thing when the children you have raised and nurtured start creating things themselves.  Nolan LOVES the game LIFE.  Ever since the first time we played  he has known how to spell life.  He also loves cutting paper.  The other day he was sitting on the floor cutting up a paper he found in the trash.  I was sewing when he said "look mommy".  He had taken bits and pieces of the paper he had cut and spelt the word life!