Igloo

Our fun sledding hill became an igloo last night. Steve and Brooklyn dug a hole in the middle of the hill and made an igloo out of it. We are making the most out of the snow we have left. It's warming up so the snow is melting fast.

Christmas Sledding

We have a great sledding hill that we go to that is about a 10 minute walk from our house, but Steve decided to make us our very own sledding hill in our front yard. It's only 8 feet tall and should melt by July but it is a ton of fun. Here are a couple of video clips of us on Christmas night getting in a few rides. This snow may not last as it's supposed to start warming up.

Merry Christmas!

We have had such a fun Christmas day! We got up this morning at 6:30. Steve and I didn't get to bed last night until 2:00 and we thought we'd sleep in until 8:00 but Mackenzie and Brooklyn had different plans for us. Before we went to bed last night Steve turned off all the alarm clocks that our girls had set around the house. We thought we had all of them turned off...the cell phones, the iPods, the Nintendo DS...but two alarm clocks we didn't check were the ones on our night stands right by our bed! Both of our alarm clocks rang at 4:30 this morning! Mackenzie was in our room before we could even turn them off! We told her that we were not getting up that early so she went back to bed. Lucky for us she slept another 2 hours! Here are some pictures of our Christmas day fun.
Our girls have to wait at the stairs until Dad looks to make sure Santa has indeed come!

What did Santa bring Brooklyn?

What did Santa put in Mackenzie's stocking?

Grandma LeBaron made us this blanket. Thank you...we love it Grandma!

For a couple of hours this morning it snowed pretty hard. Here is a picture of Brooklyn catching snowflakes in her mouth!

Kia loves the snow. We let her out and she ripped around when it was snowing.

We gave the family a Wii game system for Christmas. Here is Mackenzie and Brooklyn playing a little tennis. Merry Christmas!

Twas The Night Before Christmas

Mackenzie and Brooklyn have waited all month for this day to arrive and here it is! We have had a fun day relaxing and being together as a family. Here are some pictures of our Christmas Eve!
Family photo in front of our Christmas Tree!

Christmas Eve dinner...fondue...yum yum yum!

The girls get to open up two presents on Christmas Eve. One is a new pair of pajamas and the other gift is a Christmas book.

Brooklyn reading the Christmas story from the Bible.

Here we are all snugly in our new jammies getting ready to read the Christmas book. We are hurrying off to bed now so that Santa can come! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Our Homemade Sledding Hill!

Tonight Steve built a huge sledding hill in our front yard. The plan at first was to build an igloo but half way through the building they started using it as a sledding hill! The whole family was outside tonight sledding...even me! I'm sure we'll have all the neighborhood kids over tomorrow for some sledding fun. We are sure enjoying all this snow and savoring every minute we have it because we know it won't last too much longer.

Check out the expression on my face! This was my first ride on the hill and as you can tell by the look on my face I was unsure of how this was going to turn out. Surprisingly it was a lot of fun and I didn't get hurt so I was back up on the hill for another ride in no time! And yes...I was in my pajamas! :-}

Those three words we all love to hear... ..."Church Is Cancelled"!!

We have lived here for almost 11 years and of those 11 years church has only been cancelled three times! Now don't get us wrong...we love going to church and our week just doesn't seem the same without going but there is something exciting about getting that phone call telling us that it has been cancelled! Yesterday afternoon the wind started to blow and it started snowing again. We had a Christmas party at our house last night and it continued to snow during the entire party. When we went to bed around 1:30 it was still snowing. We got about 8 inches of snow last night. Steve just came in from shoveling the drive-way and side walks and it's snowing again! We are loving it and taking advantage of this rare opportunity to stay home from church and play together as a family. Bring out the sleds, hot chocolate, games, present wrapping and of course the Christmas goodies for munching!
Here is a picture of Brooklyn going off a jump! She got some serious air!

Let it Snow...Let it Snow...Let it Snow!!

We have had quite the wintery blizzard blow through here this week. Monday and Tuesday our schools were on a 2 hour delay because of icy roads. Yesterday and today school was cancelled and we just found out that school has been cancelled for tomorrow. It's been really cold so the snow is sticking and staying. It has been snowing all day and is so pretty. Right now it's only 25 degrees so it's chilly outside! We have a perfect sledding hill at a park in the neighborhood right next to ours so Mackenzie and Brooklyn have spent a lot of time over there sledding with all the kids in our neighborhood. The forecast says we might have the snow around for a while and there is a possibility of another snow storm on Sunday. Today we only ventured out to run to the grocery store. We have been wrapping presents, listening to Christmas music, making Christmas candy and now we are having a Guitar Hero competition! So...Let it Snow...Let it Snow...Let it Snow!
Check out how beautiful our swimming pool looks with the snow around it! We have been running all the pumps and waterfall almost constant for the past 6 days so that none of the pipes will freeze and break. We are not looking forward to our electrical bill in January...YIKES!

Anyone want to join Mackenzie? There is an extra lounge chair!! Brrrrrrr!

Our dog Kia is like a little kid in the snow. She loves to go outside and play in it. Today we let her out in the backyard and she immediately went up into the play structure of our swing set to get one of her balls. Funny dog!

We have a rain chain in our backyard that is connected to the rain gutter that hangs off our patio cover. Check out the ice in the chain. It's like the water froze right in the middle of dripping!

Winter Wonderland!

We had a dusting of snow last night and when we got up this morning it was still here! When we were driving to church this morning the temperature was only 28 degrees so the roads were pretty icy. It's supposed to be cold all week with another chance of snow later in the week. It looks and feels more like Christmas with the everything covered in snow!

Happy Birthday Cynthia Kay!

Hi! Steve here. Cynthia agreed to let me make another blog entry if I agreed to behave myself. Bummer - oh well, here goes.

Yesterday was Cynthia's birthday and we had a great time celebrating. I took the day off from work and spent it with Cynthia doing whatever she wanted. Shock the house - we went shopping. :-) It was great just to have time together - time is indeed the greatest gift as it is the most rare - life is way too busy. We hit a number of stores, stopped and had lunch at the Rock and had some awesome pizza while rocking out to some great headbanger songs from our teen era. We then hit some more stores before meeting the girls back at home. I had surprised Cynthia with tickets to go see "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" a play in downtown Seattle. We opened a few presents, went to dinner and then to the play. After the play we wandered down to the stage and orchestra pit area on the lower level (as our tickets were up on the balcony level with the rest of the peasants) and we found that a drama class had arranged to meet the cast after the show. We decided to join them and sat down with the 50 or so students and teachers and listened to the cast answer questions. It was fun. By the time we got home it was past midnight. Cynthia then opened the rest of her presents.

Thanks to everyone who sent cards, presents, text messages and emails to make Cynthia's birthday fun. Birthday dinner at Claim Jumper restaurant! After the performance of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" at the 5th Avenue in downtown Seattle. After we got home from the show Cynthia opened up the rest of her presents. She received so many fun gifts from Mackenzie, Brooklyn and the family. Here she is with a gift that her sister Julia made for her...a decorative quilt to go on the table as a runner. She loved it Julia! Happy Birthday Cynthia! We Love You!

Happy 15th Birthday Mackenzie Kay!

Mackenzie celebrated her 15th Birthday today. She started celebrating bright and early this morning with homemade wheat waffles. On her way to early morning seminary Steve took Mackenzie to Safeway so she could pick up some donuts to take to seminary for her birthday. Tonight we had a family dinner with all of Mackenzie's favorites. After dinner she opened her presents and then she and Brooklyn went Christmas caroling with the young women and young men in our ward. When they got home from caroling the party continued with cake and ice cream. It's so hard to believe that our baby is 15 years old. Where did the years go? It seems like just yesterday we got a call from our social worker telling us that our baby girl had been born. Steve and I could hardly sleep that night...December 10, 1993. The very next day we got to see Mackenzie for the first time and bring her home. She was so small...5 lbs. 13 oz. and was so beautiful. Steve and I were so excited...after 8 years we were finally going to be parents! We sure love you Mackenzie! Thank you for being such a fun and beautiful daugther. We are sure proud of you and are proud to have you as our daughter. Happy Birthday!
Birthday breakfast!

One of Mackenzie's Birthday traditions is to open one present in the morning before school. This morning the present she chose to open was from her cousins the Robison's. She loved the perfume and bracelet!

Mackenzie gave me a menu for her Birthday dinner. She chose Thai food - BBQ chicken skewers with homemade peanut sauce, Teriyaki chicken pasta salad and rice.

I made Mackenzie's cake and then Steve decorated it with frosting to look like her i-pod.

Mackenzie got a digital camera for her birthday. She was so excited! She also got this cute coat. Happy 15th Birthday Mackenzie Kay! We Love You! Mom, Dad & Brooklyn

Downtown Shopping Adventure!

Saturday night we went downtown to do a little Christmas shopping and to see all the fun Christmas sights. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and then we hit all the stores that Mackenzie and Brooklyn wanted to shop in. Steve was a trooper as we waited for our girls to try on clothes and come out of all the dressing rooms and do a fashion show for us. Luckily for Steve most of the stores had nice comfy chairs and sofa's to sit on! It was fun to see all the Christmas lights, decorations and street musicians. We rode the carousel and stopped by the Sheraton Hotel to see the gingerbread houses they have displayed in their lobby. It was a fun evening and got us more into the spirit of Christmas.
Check out this "small" gingerbread house! Wow! The entire house is made out of candy!

Steve and Cynthia win big at the Boeing Sojitz party!

Each year Sojitz, a company that assists Boeing with airplane sales in Japan, hosts a fun pre-holiday party at the Museum of Flight. Over 200 people from Boeing, the Japanese airlines and Boeing's Japanese suppliers and partners attend the party. It is always a lot of fun and we look forward to it every year. This year they had a paper airplane contest where they provided to each of the 21 tables some cardstock and other materials and each table flew two airplanes from a balcony down onto a runway they had layed out on the floor below. The 6 foot by 30 foot runway was marked from 10 to 100 and the objective was to land your airplane on the runway and as close to the 100 points as possible. Well, many of you may not know this, but Steve made airplanes out of most of the Sunday Sacrament meeting programs ever since he was a little boy so he had an advantage in this game. The first group of tables threw their airplanes and only one table landed their plane in the 80 point spot. The second group, which included our table was up and Steve landed his airplane in the 100 point spot. He was just plain pumped. You would have thought he was Michael Phelps winning his 7th Gold Medal :-) I guess folding all those airplanes as a kid paid off - he won $100 gift certificate to a fine steakhouse in our area - for each of the 5 couples at our table. However, our fun evening did not end there. Later after playing another game they put everyone's name into a bowl and drew out names for 25 different prizes - ranging from Coach purses, hotel, restaurant and spa certificates. A few names in Cynthia was excited to hear the host call out "Mrs. LeBaron." She received a gift certificate to a spa in Bellevue. Later the luck continued when "Mr. LeBaron" was called out and Steve received a gift certificate to a really nice Sushi restaurant. Well, all in all it was a fun evening and a lucky one for us. Steve's luck did not run out there - he got to go home with Cynthia. :-) Here we are with the airplanes in the background - sorry the picture is grainy - we took it with my Blackberry.

...And The Winner Goes To...

Tonight we went to Mackenzie's marching band banquet and awards ceremony. They had a potluck dinner and then a slide show of pictures from this years competitions, practices and band trips. At the end of the slide show they presented all 120 marching band students with a certificate of letter - in other words, Mackenzie has lettered in band. Then Mackenzie's band director gave out a couple of special awards and the first one he gave out was for "Best Section for 2008" and that award was given to the mellophone section! Yahoo Mackenzie! Way to go! The director called all the mellophone players up to the stage and presented each of them with a trophy. The mellophone section has their own mello dance so they did their dance right up there on stage while the rest of the band members cheered them on. Mackenzie was so excited and couldn't stop smiling! Congrats Mackenzie Kay!
The Mello Section!

Mackenzie with her trophy and Congrats balloon!

Here is a close up shot of Mackenzie's trophy!

Poor Little Steven Ralph!

Steve is on a business trip in France this week. Take a look at these two pictures that Steve sent to us today.
This first picture is of his dinner tonight. It is a huge wedge of cheese that is propped up on this stand. The cheese is near a hot plate that melts the cheese and as it melts it drips onto his plate. He had different kinds of breads, ham and potatoes to dip into the warm melted cheese! Kind of like a cheese fondue.

This picture is of the dessert he had after his yummy cheese fondue dinner. It’s a chocolate crepe served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, whip cream and chocolate sauce drizzled on top!

Steve lives such an exciting and fun life. Who would have ever thought that Little Ralphy from Highland Utah would someday go to France on business and be wined and dined like a royal King! So…please don’t feel sorry for him when he has to travel. The girls and I certainly don’t know that we have seen these pictures! In fact…the girls and I are heading out the door to go to the fanciest steak house in Seattle for dinner!! Just Kidding! We’re having macaroni and cheese for dinner! Yum Yum! Oh the life of the rich, famous and spoiled rotten!! :-}

Thanksgiving Week

We spent a week in Utah for the Thanksgiving holiday. Jon and Julia hosted this years Thanksgiving reunion for the Smith family and we had a great time! We thoroughly enjoyed their warm inviting home, fabulous food, movies, ice skating, craft boutique shopping, temple trip and of course playing games! Thanks for all the fun...we had a fabulous time! Late Thursday night our family packed up and headed down to Highland to spend a couple of fun filled days with the LeBaron family. It was a lot of fun to see everyone again. We had a great time Friday playing at CLUB Chad and Tina's home with their 4-runners, tennis court, trampoline, skate ramp and swing set. We had a delicious dinner, homemade pies, homemade chocolate chip cookies, games, pinata break and karaoke. Saturday morning all the adults went to the Jordan River Temple with our nephew Cameron as he took out his endowments in preparation for serving his mission in Nicaragua. We sure had a great time being together with the family again! We had such a great Thanksgiving week!
Jacob, Heidi, Brianna, Grandpa Smith, Grandma Smith, Brooklyn and Mackenzie in front of the Logan Temple. One afternoon while we were there we did baptisms. What a great experience to be inside the temple with our family.

Ice skating fun! Brrrrrrrr!

One of the cousin tables at our Thanksgiving feast! Yum Yum!

Uncle Brad made this huge crazy looking turkey pinata for all the kids to break. Mr. Turkey was pretty strong and he made it through the beating of all the LeBaron family members!

Cousin karaoke singing!

Brad, Chad and Steve rockin out to "Born To Be Wild"! They were quite entertaining!

Here we are in front of the Jordan River Temple! Congratulations Cameron on receiving your mission call. We are sure proud of you and know you will do a great job serving our Heavenly Father in Nicaragua.