Amelia

Happy Easter

April 4, 2010

It's a little late, I know, but here are pictures from our Easter celebrations.

Kayden greeting the Easter Bunny

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Getting ready for out Easter Treasure Hunt. Grandma Dina was explaining the rules and dividing us all into teams. The teams were:

Team #1: Amelia, Eliza and Grandpa

Team #2: Joshua, Brigham and Jefferson

Team #3: Andrea, Ryan and Kayden

Team #4: Samuel, Jill, Lily and Ethan

Our clues led us all aver and around Grandma Dina's house.

Can you guess where this clue took us?

If you guessed, Grandma's Red Wagon, you were right.

Grandpa and Eliza figuring out the clue.

Here's another clue:

Where did this one take us?

To the Datin' Waitin' Room.

Another of our tasks in this area, was to take 3 picture of our group.  Here are some of them from this area.

Brigham, Joshua and Jefferson.  Can you see how our styles of photography differ?

Amelia, Eliza and Grandpa.  I think Grandma Dina took this picture.

The next group: Kayden, Ryan and Andrea

And the last group:  (not that they were the last in this room, Grandma mixes up the order of clues for each group)  Samuel, Jill, Ethan and Lily

Ethan with all of his Easter loot.

He told Grandma Dina that she was the "best Grandma ever" because she gave him that package of mini bowling ball pins.

Yeah!  We're all gathered together after the scavenger hunt and showing off the prizes.

Guess who won the scavenger hunt?  Again!  That's right, Joshua's team and he's might proud of it.

After the scavenger hunt, it was time to do the Easter Egg Hunt.

Can you see where any eggs are hidden?

Now it's the kids favorite part - opening the eggs and eating what's inside.

Andrea was excited for Kayden's first Easter too.

Eliza brought a cute bunny with her that I took a couple of pictures of it surrounded by Easter eggs.

I think Kayden was more fascinated by the eggs than he was by the candy inside of them.

Then we have the consequences of eating too much candy,  the kids get sick.

Or blue tongues at least.

Jill and Lily with her Easter Egg.

And . . . Aaah it's Josh and Jessika.

Christmas at the Smith's!!!
This year we had all of our family together for Christmas. It's been a long time since we had the whole family up. It was really nice to be able to visit with Tiffany, Andrew, Corbin and Carter who drove up from Texas. (Yes they survived the trip both ways with the two little boys.)
Grandma Dina was just really happy that everyone could be here to celebrate the day together.
Grandpa Kevin's excited and pondering what gift he gets to unwrap!

Adults are really just kids in bigger clothes

Joshua's favorite Christmas present this year was. . . .
a sword, no wait two swords, let me count that again . . .
three swords for Christmas.

You may wonder about the Santa hat.
It's a tradition to get a picture with everyone wearing the hat.
(Why didn't I think of that earlier when I was asked what my favorite Christmas tradition was. That and also taking a picture of everything we got for Christmas)

Amelia in "the hat"

Christmas morning before everyone else got to Grandma's house.
(The frog is a cookie jar, one of the three swords, a game and a hair dryer -
these were all the things we forgot to put in our individual pictures.)

Grandpa's Stash

Even our visitors got to wear it!
Brian in "the hat".

Allison

Don

MarilynEveryone gets their chance. It's the hat that gets around.
(Good thing no one has fleas - otherwise everyone would)

Tiffany and Carter just getting to Grandma's house. Carter had just woke up.

Samuel rockin' away on Guitar Hero 5

Looks like Eliza needs to grow into the hat a little bit more.

Samuel and Jill getting ready to do some exchange presents.

A new hat for Grandma Dina to wear!

Watch out, Joshua is armed and dangerous with his broadsword.
Anything is better if it has swords in it, even the traditional Christmas hat picture.
Kayden and Andrea are looking at all the pretty ornaments on Grandma's
downstairs Christmas tree.
(That was the most important one; Santa left all the presents there.)

Now you know how we're going to cut down our next Christmas tree.
Joshua will use one of his swords to hack away at it.
(I bet he hasn't thought of that yet. Pumpkins chopping for Halloween,
and now he can do tree chopping for Christmas, he couldn't be happier
with those tasks to do)

Grandma and Grandpa

Cousin Lovin'
Samuel's kids really enjoyed having Corbin and Carter around.
They had a lot of fun playing with each other and just getting to know each other better.Eliza and Carter giving out some hugs.

Isn't it great how you can fit six kids on a couch that only holds two adults?

Don and Marilyn brought Great Grandma Pearson up to stay with us for a while as well. We had a nice visit with her and also got to see our other Texas relatives as well.

Corbin liked the train underneath Grandma's upstairs tree.

Let the Chaos and Havoc begin!
Once everyone finally got here (it wasn't soon enough for the kids),
everyone got to open presents that we gave to each other.

Ryan (excited about his new remote controlled car)
and Andrew (exhausted from opening all those presents - He was guarding the of stuff he got, or that the rest of his family got)
Grandma and Grandpa getting ready to open some of the last presents.
These were two really nice pictures that Samuel and Jill gave to them.
Eliza was the "delivery elf".

A Different king of Santa. This one is getting rid of all the wrapping paper that
had been strewn all over the downstairs carpet.
(Maybe Santa can reuse some of it next year.)

Amelia was helping Carter drive in Mario Kart. This didn't last too long.
He wanted to do it all by himself.

We all had a very nice Christmas. We enjoyed the noise, the chaos, the laughter, the chatter, the company, the food, the gifts, and just the day in general.

We hope everyone had a great time and can all come again next year!