Valentine's Adventures

 We had a great Valentine's Day. Holidays are so much fun with kids and Paige is at the perfect age where she gets so excited with all the fun.

Paige had her first Valentine's party for school so on Monday we worked on some Valentines. She put together all the ones for her friends and teachers and wrote everyone's names. Then she did a couple of Valentine's for her grandparents that required painting her feet. She had so much fun doing this and it was cute watching her create. After she was done with that craft, she had extra paint and said with it she was going to paint a masterpiece. She says some of the cutest and funniest things.

 My mom sent this cute decoration about a week before Valentine's day. Once we got it we spent one evening decorating and coloring all the hearts and it makes a perfect Valentine's decoration in her room.

 Then it was finally the day and Paige woke up to this little treat. She was so excited for the day and I loved seeing her reaction when she saw this treat. 

 Paige got up earlier than usual with excitement for the day especially for school. Since we got her a little Valentine's treat and while I was making breakfast and getting ready she hid in her room for awhile and when she came out she had these sweet Valentine's for Nate and I. She is the sweetest and most thoughtful little girl.

 She had the best time at school and told us all about her Valentine's party. She made this cute headband and had so much fun handing out and getting Valentine's from all her friends.

 For  a countdown to Valentine's day I cut out these hearts and Nate and I both wrote 7 things we love about Paige. Every morning when she woke up a new heart would be taped on her door. It was a fun and simple way to show Paige how much we love her and she loved looking for the new heart every day when she woke up. We sure love our little Valentine and are so grateful that we are her parents. We are lucky to have such an amazing little girl.

Here are the things that I wrote that I love about Paige:

-Your cute, kissable cheeks

-I love how happy and positive you are

-I love cooking with you especially cookies

-I love that you are so helpful and help me clean around the house

-I love that you love to learn and love school

-I love seeing you take care of young kids like Eliza

-I love our night time chats and hearing your thoughts

Here are the things that Nate wrote:

-I love that you go thrift shopping with me

-I love that you take care of mom and dad when we are sad

-I love your creativity

-I love your BIG hugs

-I love your giggle

-I love it when you are being a trickster.

-I love you!

 Then after we had a quick lunch we all headed out to Dash Point State Park. We have not been there for awhile and it was a beautiful day and we enjoying soaking up some sunshine. Dash Point is pretty awesome. There is some sandy areas but also lots of shells and rocks to look at. And of course the beautiful view of the Sound and listening to the water. We spent almost two hours there and enjoyed every minute of it.

 Paige decided to save as many clams as she could. Any clam that she found that was still closed and alive she would pick up and throw back into the water. It was pretty cute to watch.

 I love my little family so much!

 There was an area that was filled with sand dollars. There were so many and again if Paige saw one that was upside down then she would flip it over.

 We picked up a few of the live ones and watched there little leg filler things move. It was fascinating to watch.

 We found this cool log that had a couple of small crabs and little bug looking creatures. Paige enjoyed poking in the water with a stick making them all move.

 We ended our wonderful day with a Valentine's dinner. Paige and Nate's favorite- spaghetti, heart shaped jello, and heart shaped cheesy bread. It was so good!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Snow Day

 Earlier this week we got a good 6 inches of snow. This is pretty rare for where we live but we enjoyed it for a couple hours since we knew in a couple of days it would all be gone. I kind of like snow like that where I can enjoy it for the day but then it goes away. Living in Idaho changes the way you view snow. :)

We headed to Lake Meridian where they have some small hills that are the perfect size for Paige.

We first went on the bigger side and I thought Paige would love it since she is at times a thrill seeker but by the time she got to the bottom she was in tears. She was brave enough to go down but you could see the terror in her face the farther she went down. 

 So we headed over to the smaller hills and it helped that Nona and Papa came over to the join the fun to bring a smile back to that cute face.

Paige liked to race everyone down and she liked that she always won. :)

 I like everyone's faces in this picture looking down at Paige at the bottom of the hill.

 They still have lots of fun together.

 Nate making me laugh- it's a daily occurrence. :)

 Someone built this awesome snowman!

 She looks so adorable in her snow clothes!

 Then we headed back to Nona and Papa's and we had brought our snowman kit and Nate and Papa built the snowman and Paige helped Nate put him all together.

 Their snowman turned out so cute and they are both so cute!

Craft Calendar

At the beginning of last year my mom sent Paige this calendar. It was a scrapbook calendar with spaces for pictures and lots of cute stickers and things to put together. Paige loves to do crafts so much that I decided to do a craft calendar instead of a picture one. This way I have a years worth of Paige crafts. Every month she loved putting it together even though sometimes it would be towards the end of the month when we finally got around to it. And some months got more craft attention than others but here is her finished calendar.

January- finger snowmen and a sequin snowflake

February- glitter fun

 March- a rainbow with a pot of gold and the cutest girl in the world for her birthday month

 April- the one month that seemed to get forgotten and just got a picture and some stickers :)

 May- finger print flowers

 June- ice cream bar that she had fun designing herself

 July- a firework and a beautiful scene of flowers and the flag

 August- swim party at the lake

 September- colored leaves falling from the tree and her friends at preschool

 October- a scary jack-o-lantern and some other spooky Halloween characters

 November- a hand turkey and some things she is thankful for- Lucy (the blue thing/our fish), flowers, jack-o-lanterns (still thinking of Halloween), and the sun

 December- a beautiful Christmas tree all decked out with sparkle glue

This was such a fun thing to do with Paige every month and seeing her imagination and creativity. She is one crafty little girl!

Christmas Vacation to Idaho

 We got to spend almost 3 weeks in Idaho over the holidays. It was great to see all my family but we got sick of the snow and cold really fast. I got lots of great pictures and we made lots of fun memories.

The first week we were there was the week before Christmas. It was a pretty chill week and we just got to spend time doing last minute things for Christmas and spending lots of time with Derek and Amy and their family.

One night we played the game Heads Up which is kind of like charades.

 Another day we went to the Museum in Idaho Falls to look at the Christmas display which included Santa collections, gingerbread houses, and nativity collections.

 They have a fun kids area at the museum with lots of things to explore and play with from the history of Idaho.

 Then it was Christmas time. For Christmas Eve we made our own sandwiches to keep Smith tradition and then we headed up to Rigby to go to dinner at my aunt and uncle's house.

 Santa even showed up right before he was heading out to deliver all the presents around the world.

 We got home and Paige opened up her Christmas pjs before heading to bed with sweet dreams of what the next day would bring.

 Then it was finally Christmas! Paige makes Christmas so much fun and I loved seeing her excitement over opening all the presents and playing with all her gifts.

 We did another Smith tradition and burned a Santa candle. We were suppose to get together with all my family that is in the area for a big Christmas party but there was a big snow storm that cancelled church and made some pretty big drifts so we postponed the party until later in the week. It was a simple Christmas but we enjoyed every minute of it.

 The next day we got to enjoy all the snow and had a fun playing in the snow day.

Paige looked SO cute in her snow clothes.

 There was a big enough drift that the girls got to do a little sledding.

 Then the day came for the family Christmas party. Karlton, Michelle, and Tannin came over a little bit earlier so Paige got to play with Tannin for a bit. Tannin is the cutest little boy!

 Then we all met at Derek and Amy's and the kids first got to decorate sugar cookies and then we had a delicious dinner of lots of different soups. 

 After dinner and some playing we all gathered together and my mom brought her nativity set that is made of blocks and each kid got one block to set the nativity up while Papa read it from the scriptures.

 Then we did all the gift exchanges- the cousins exchanged gifts and then the adults. It was fun to see everyone's reactions to what they got.

 This little guy has changed so much since the last time I saw him. It was so much fun to get together with most of my family for the party.

 Erika stayed the night at my parents and I went with her and my parents down to Utah to see Tyler, Sharolyn, and Emmett. It was quite a bit of driving but it was fun to see them and enjoy lunch with them. Emmett is a happy and cute little guy!

 We then got all bundled up and headed outside for a wagon ride.

 It was a lot of fun even though my toes were frozen and the scenery was beautiful.

 We had our New Year's party on the day before since there wasn't any college games on Sunday. Two of my friends from high school came over in the morning. It was so awesome to see them and catch up.

 Then it was a fun day of eating food, visiting, and watching football. The best part of the day was our numerous games of oner. This is a Smith created game and it was so much fun and pretty intense and competitive.

 The little girls even played a few of their own games.

 The last week we were in Idaho all the girls got together did gingerbread houses. It was a fun little get together and Paige loved having so much girl cousin time.

 During the days Paige did a lot of crafting and creating. Here is one of her many creations- a beautiful crown. She has been writing words a lot lately and it is so cute how she writes them. She sounds out the word and writes it how it sounds thus on her crown is how she spells it.

 For more of her writing creations she wrote and drew a whole bunch of signs and hung them all over in the upstairs at my parents house for directions to everything. Some words she got lazy and just wrote what certain words start with but I love seeing her try and figure out how to spell word.

This sign is for the bathroom. And this is what she wrote for other things in the upstairs-

-DNSDEZ- downstairs

-UBSDEZ- upstairs

-LVRM- living room

-CPDR- computer

 Also during our last week we got to celebrate Emily's birthday. We got to go to Rupes and then enjoy some cake and ice cream. We went out to eat quite a few times during our trip but they were all places that had fry sauce. Whenever I go to Idaho I have to get as much fry sauce as I can. :)

 Also on one of the last days we were in Idaho we went up north and visited with Erika and Brian and their family and Karlton, Michelle, and Tannin. It was fun to visit with them all and see them all before we head back to Washington.

 This cute girl loved being in Idaho and seeing all her cousins. It will take some time to adjust back to normal life though I am ready to get back into a routine and be home because there is no place like home.