Smith Christmas Party 2011

Every year, without fail, the Smith family gets together for a big Christmas Party! This is the whole family that originated with Carrie's grandmother Margaret (Grandma Maggie) and grandfather Clifford. That includes their 6 children and their families, and this year there were a total of 41 people at the party.

Santa and Mrs. Claus visited and Santa read "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" to the kids. Isabelle and Seth liked the story very much. Here they are with Connor while listening to the story.

Santa then called each child up to sit on his lap, talk and receive a present. Isabelle's present was a singing Tori doll from the show Victorious.

Seth's present was the Batman Lego DS game.

Parker's present was a toy car. He wasn't about to sit on Santa's lap so he had help from Daddy.

Each family had their photo taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Here's the Chapman family.

All of the Smith grandkids played a family history trivia game. There were 17 questions and the person who won had 10 of them right. Carrie tied with 2 others (Jessi and Kim) with 10 correct, so it came down to "pick a number and whoever's closest wins". Kim won! We learned some neat facts about our relatives and had a lot of fun in the process.

It was a great afternoon of food, games and seeing all of our family!

Letters to Santa (Updated!)

Grove City has a special mail box at the library to send letters to Santa Claus. This is the first year we've used this mailbox. Here are the letters we sent in their envelopes, and us sending them.

Isabelle wrote a letter asking if she is on the good list and letting Santa know some gifts she would like. She would not let me scan and share her letter here :) But this is the letter she received back from Santa:

Seth told me what to write for his letter and he colored the picture:

Here is the letter Santa sent back:

After consulting with Parker, I wrote a letter to Santa for him:

There was a "technical error" scanning his entire letter, but it continued to say "with, and maybe some big boy toys too."

Of course, Santa wrote back to Parker too:

It sounds like Santa Claus is very busy and Mrs. Claus is very busy taking care of him! We can't wait to see what he brings for Christmas!

Parker's First Haircut

13 months old - time for a first haircut! We have a neat kids-only salon here in Grove City. They have a waiting area full of toys which Parker enjoyed. Seth and Isabelle came along to see Parker's first haircut. Here are two "before" pictures.

Parker got to sit in a cool red car and watch a Nick Jr. baby movie. He also held his snack cup full of Apple Jacks and ate them the entire time. He really was not bothered at all by getting his hair cut!

Getting ready in the car with his snack cup

 

Just a little off the back

All done!

Finished side view

Handsome Parker!

Parker received a certificate and a baggy full of his hair. He did a great job!

Columbus Metropolitan Library

The Columbus library has a big train display during the holidays so we ventured downtown to see it. It was really neat with some trains from Thomas the Train and Friends, many different tracks and elaborate displays filled with houses, buildings, people and a water fall. We discovered this library also has a really neat play area for kids. Isabelle played a game on the computer, Seth played with toy trains and Parker played with the toy trains, blocks and a spinning toy. He walked on his own quite a bit while we were there!

Waterfall in the background, coming down the rocks



View of the train tracks from above

Isabelle playing a computer game (Freddie Fish)

Seth playing with the wooden trains. He said this IS his smile!

The "spinning toy" Parker liked

Parker sneaking up on Daddy:

Family Photos

We're so fortunate to have a neighbor who is a photographer! We had a family session done and here are some of the photos. We've saved the best one for our Christmas cards to be sent soon!

Parker didn't want to sit still

The Beautiful Isabelle - age 8

Handsome Seth - age 5

Parker Pie - age 12 months

He's off!

We Have A Walker!

Today, December 9, marks Parker's first official day as a walker! We've been practicing with him a lot. He loves to walk back and forth between Mommy and Daddy. Today he really started letting go of his support items (walker toys and couch) and walking out on his own! At the childcare at the YMCA, they said he walked all over the place. Yay for Parker!! Pics to come soon!

A Little Help

"Do I have to do everything myself around here?"