Hi Folks! The Smith's have been MIA for a while... not for any reason in particular, we just haven't taken that many photos lately! So let's catch up!

Early November brought a really fun reunion with my (Steph's) friends from high school. We get together every two years or so and have a relaxing, no-kids weekend! There is something so refreshing about being with people that you have such history with! While we may not talk as often as we'd like and we're spread out all over the world, there is such refreshment in getting together and hearing each others lives, making each other laugh, and sharing each others hurts. I love it! This year we were fortunate enough to go to a cabin near Heber, AZ. There were seven of us that were able to attend this year- representing 20 kids! There were lots of funny stories, a ton to catch up on, junk food to consume, cheesy movies to watch, naps to take... does it get any better??!! Who wouldn't want to spend a weekend with these awesome women??With the start of the holiday season, I've been working a crazy amount of hours. Jeff's been crazy busy at school- he's revamping a physics unit for his team of teachers that teach the freshman science class... yikes. This team teaching stuff bring out Jeff's perfectionistic side! So, we didn't really see much of each other for a while.

Then, Adam and Stacey came for Thanksgiving!!! YEAH!!! It was so awesome to have family around on our first holiday away from Indiana! Avery loves Uncle Adam and Auntie Stacey, so it was a great week! We didn't do too much that was exciting. We had one nice day early in the week and I took Stacey on my favorite bike ride. The got to see Avery at tumbling class! Avery enjoyed showing off all of her skills for Daddy and Stacey! Then it got really cold and snowed- which Adam loved- sometimes he's a little crazy like that. I'll say, for a bunch of rookies in the Thanksgiving dinner preparation area, our dinner came out pretty good! Not too much of it was from scratch or anything, but everything was relatively hot at the same time, nothing was too burned- pretty impressive!

I worked at 6 am on Black Friday- yikes!!! Then, we went and bought our Christmas tree!!! We watched Christmas movies, decorated our tree, and put presents under it for "Christmas morning". Yup, that's right, the Bouse's and the Smith's did Christmas morning on Saturday morning! It was soo fun to see how excited Avery was! Grandma and Grandpa Smith sent some gifts for Avery with the Bouse's, so she got lots of fun stuff!


Here's the sign of a good Christmas... Avery is wearing her new dress-up dress, playing with her new cash register! Doesn't get any better!


She's finally gotten the idea of naming her toys something other than their title- her stuffed cat is 'kitty cat', stuffed Bambi is 'Bambi'. But, she got a new stuffed puppy and the above seen penguin- they are now Erin the puppy, Bob the penguin, and a Christmas decoration she found is Jo the Moose! So fun!
Hi All! Here are Avery's Halloween pics. She had a great time trick-or-treating in Erica's neighborhood! She couldn't believe that she just kept getting more and more candy. After every house she'd shout, "Oh boy, Oh boy!!!"

Erica's neighborhood was really fun- what I remember Halloween being. Tons of kids everywhere, people just walking in the street safely, all of the houses participating, and tons of streetlights and sidewalks! Muncie folk, you know why I appreciate the light and sidewalks!

Avery ended up spending most of her time with a little guy that was a bit younger than she was- a neighbor. He was dressed as a little bear. She kept saying, "come on little bear, let's go!" She continually refrenced him by little bear instead of his name... sorta cute!

She has since forgotten all about her stash of candy... good for her, bad for us!!!



Posted by Picasa