baby's name is set in stone! (well, felt at least)

I finally finished the stockings I started before Christmas.  I guess that's one of the perks of Christmas coming every year.  We can pretend I'm just really early instead of a little late. 

I thought it'd be fun to make one for our baby boy as well.  Brandon and I fell in love with the name Sawyer last summer.  And I know that finding the perfect baby name has got to be one of the silliest reasons to have a baby, but it can sure put you in the mood.  We were so excited we even read his namesake aloud to each other.  I guess we just felt like there was a little Sawyer waiting to join us. 

p.s. We had a formal farewell to our little tree, so with that done and stockings stored we can finally say goodbye to Christmas . . . for a little while.

a sketchbook review of 2010

I love looking at the drawings in Brandon's old journals.  Sometimes he draws pictures of the big events in our lives, but most of the time he captures the simple everyday moments, times when we didn't have the camera, stories that would be forgotten if he didn't record them.  I thought it'd be fun to use some of his pictures to illustrate this past year. 

January

To preface this picture, you have to know that Brandon rides his bike across town once a week so I can have the car.  On this particular morning he popped his tire on a glass bottle and ran home to get the car while wearing a backpack and work shoes.  I think he's a superhero. 

 Brandon was released from his calling as Cubmaster and I was given his position.  As a farewell and thank you, all the little boys performed a banana cheer and we gave him a bunch of bananas (purchased with his own hard-earned money).  p.s. I've been loving my calling.

Paisley's favorite game is being chased around the house by Daddy

February

We went on a family canoe trip for Valentine's Day

 Suddenly hiking becomes much more entertaining when Paisley discovers Daddy's hair

March

One of Brandon's surprise dates for me was our own mini olympics in the living room.  Obviously I got the gold medal for figure skating.

My Mama came to town and spoiled us with her good cooking

April

Paisley Eden turned one! Her birthday "cake" consisted of a yogurt that she snuck into at the grocery store

Spencer (Brandon's brother) and Zoe were  married! At their wedding reception in Florida, we performed a little song about them floating away on a giant tomato.

Paisley learned to walk

May

 Brandon played sherpa on our first ever campout with Paisley

 Sometimes Brandon feels this big at work

June

Paisley loves looking at pictures of Jesus during her bedtime routine

July

 We celebrated my birthday with a canoe adventure

August

 We helped "chaperone" a tubing trip at Lake Mead with the young men and women at church

September

 Goodnight kisses for Paisley!

 While hiking at Mount Charleston, we took a little break to read Huck Finn and let Paisley explore

We took a road trip to Utah to watch a BYU game with Spencer and Zoe and visit with family.  Paisley likes to play a game called "let's see how long I can stay awake" when we're driving.  She's pretty good at it.

 Suspicions that baby #2 was on the way were confirmed!

October

 Why do they call it morning sickness when it lasts all day?

 Paisley loves to be tickled!

November 

 We had a lovely Thanksgiving with my parents, brothers, and Grandpa Kiser in St. George, Utah

 Teaching Paisley to identify body parts can be a painful pastime

November

 We celebrated Brandon's birthday with a road trip to Disneyland.  Brandon worked on driving less than 20 miles over the speed limit and I worked on biting my tongue. ouch.

 We a had a relaxing Christmas Holiday with family in Florida.  Everyone's favorite present was the new trampoline at the lake house.

It's a boy!

i.e. Brandon is super excited about snakes and campouts . . .

Christmas Greetings from Florida!

We've been loving this past week spending time with family in Florida.  Continuing the Smith tradition, we built a little Santa snowman on Christmas Eve.  Tanner even joined us from his mission in Ecuador!

And here's  a little self-timer family photo taken before we left.  Merry Christmas!

Creations!

Santa's workshop is in full swing over here.  We've got half-made Christmas presents everywhere!  We got off to a late start, so it's been a little overwhelming, but we love it.

This is actually a doll I gave to a friend for her baby shower.  Sorry, no sneak previews of anyones presents!  But Paisley will be getting a dolly as well. 

When my mama was in town we made this shower curtain.  I love how it turned out.  We bought white linen and made a stamp out of craft foam.  Thanks for your help Mommy!

And our favorite creation . . .

I'm due in May! Hooray! 

a homemade tree

We decided to continue our little tradition of making our own Christmas tree.  This year we made it all out of pine cones. 

The best part was definitely going up to Mt. Charleston to search for the prettiest pine cones.

Here's our little helper.  Check out her little red hands--it was sooo cold!

Brandon didn't understand why I wanted to sort them all out by size and color, but he let me do it anyway.  It kind of reminds me of spreading out our candy after trick-or-treating.  It's just exciting to see what you got. 

Figuring out how to build the tree was the biggest challenge.  We thought about gluing, stacking, threading . . . and ended up building a wire frame out of our tomato trellis.  I love Brandon's look of concentration here.  I bet that's how he used to look when he played football.  Am I right, Mama Smith?

We strung all of the pine cones on some yarn and wrapped the garland around the frame. 

Some of the pine cones were super sappy.  We had to use nail polish remover to get it off.

Paisley admiring the tree the next morning

When we strung up the Christmas lights it covered too much of the tree, so we ended up building a smaller a frame to wrap the lights around and tuck inside.

 

Voila!

a love note from Paisley