Happy New Year

 We like having a simple New Years Eve Party.

This year we rang in the 2017 with fondu and board

games. I sure love this family of mine!

They mean the world to me!

2016 was a great year!

Taking our girls to Victoria, Canada (first time

taking them out of the country) was a highlight!

Looking forward to 2017

17th Wedding Anniversary

On December 28 we celebrated our 17th Wedding Anniversary.

During the day we took the girls to Hands On Art.

We each painted a mug. It was fun to spend time together.  

 At night James took me on a date.

 We went to Tuscany. This was our first time here.

It is a beautiful restaurant and was so cozy with the  lights

and the frost on the windows.

One of the fun things was the dim lighting

and the lights on the menus.

Super fancy and fun!

I am so grateful for James.  He is so much fun to 

be with and he treats me so well!

Happy Anniversary to us! 

Merry Christmas

 We woke up to a magical winter wonderland.

Church was canceled...18 inches of snowfall.

 Love Christmas morning.

 Lucy was so excited to get ice cream for her little kitchen.

Ella got a lot of panda bear stuff.

She also got American girl things for her AG doll and Bitty Baby twin.

She made these cool shirts with a AG kit.

All Kate asked for was BIG bows!!

Santa heard her and she got 25 new bows.

Abby got a variety of things....lots of music things

and clothes.  Love this musical girl.

 We spent the morning at home.

 In the afternoon we visited both sets of Grandparents.

It was a magical Christmas!

Flying Home

We had a great time in California!

Day 3 - Disneyland

Newport Beach & Balboa Pier

 We spent a day at Newport Beach,

It was too cold for swimming, but perfect for a surrey ride.

 This was our first time to Balboa Pier.

 We all had fun in the sunshine.

California Adventure

We spent a full day at California Adventure.

Our first ride of the day was Carsland.

Our family LOVED it! First time with all 

6 of us on it.  (Last time Lucy was too short).

The Anna & Elsa Broadway show was AMAZING! 

 We had lunch at Ariel's Grotto.

This was our third time eating here.

Worth it every time to see the Princesses.

Day 2 - Disneyland

We had Disneyland to ourselves.

We met the "real" Santa Claus and

walked on every ride with out a line.

 Favorite Girls

Fun to meet Moana ~ The newest Disney Princess.

We had dinner at Cafe Orleans and

went home a little early because it started to rain.

Fun day!!

California - Day 1

 Packed and ready to go....

 We decided to fly to California so the girls would

miss less school. No one complained.

Love these girls!

Abby 4.0

Abby did it again....tucked up at the top is our

favorite 4.0 student Abby.
She takes honors classes and works so hard to

get good grades in her core subjects. You rock Abby! Abby is also  enjoying Spanish,

Yearbook Concert Band and early morning Jazz Band as her electives.
Love you Abbers! #favorite8thgrader

The Festival of Trees

It was another fun year at The Festival of Trees.

Kate danced in 4 songs and Ella danced in 1 song.

Lucy stayed home with James because she had

the stomach flu.

Thanks for Papa J & Grammy for coming this year!

 We had fun in Kiddie Land. Ella made some things

for  herself and make extras to take home to Lucy.

 Fun night watching these girls!

Christmas Band Concert

Wow! We loved listening to Abby's

band concert. Abby is an amazing musician.

She played 7 Christmas songs on the

piano, drumset, snare, bells and other percussion instuments

for both Concert Band and Jazz Band.
So. Much. Talent.

A Disney Christmas

Christmas came early this year....

The morning after we put up our tree (Nov 27) we wrapped 2 giant

gift boxes and set them under the tree.

The girls were so surprised to see presents and were even more surprised

when we told them they could open them!! 

Inside were balloons....one Mickey and one Minnie.

We let the girls figure out why there were balloons.

They were so excited when we told them "We are going to

Disneyland for Christmas!" This has been a dream

for a long time!  So excited!

We had special pancakes for breakfast to celebrate our upcoming vacation

to Disneyland.

Thanksgiving 2016

  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

It was a Smedley year. We had dinner and went swimming

at Grandpa & Grandmas. We also went to see Moana.

Super relaxing day.

 On Friday we went Black Friday Shopping.

James and I had a date night

and we decorated our Christmas trees.

This is our first year with 2 Christmas trees.

We put one in the living room

and another one in the family room with all of the kid ornaments.

I love having two trees.

We made a gingerbread house....a favorite tradition. 

Sophia turned 1 and we had a fun ONEderland Birthday party for her.

Cute cousins.  

On Saturday the girls had a piano recital

at the Care Center. It was such a great way to get

to get in the spirit of Christmas and bringing cheer.

Love those Dehners!

 We had a big snowstorm the last day of Thanksgiving Break.

Fun to sled and play in the snow.

 Kids decided to get in swim suits and take a bath.....together....

Love this time of year! So grateful for our family!