November Phone Pictures

 Pam Meteer had given these cute little outfits to Hallie and Chad & Lisa's twins, 

so we got a picture of them all wearing them at the same time--so cute!

We decided to try something new with the boys' Halloween candy this year, and we made some candy blondies--and they were yummy!

Cute/messy Hallie in her highchair, haha:

November was full-on basement finishing mode, where Curt worked every night and every weekend down there. Hudson LOVED going down and watching him whenever he could, and he always brought his bear with him...and it was the most adorable thing ever:

I designed this invitation for a RS activity we were going to have...and then the governor issued strict guidelines to not gather with anyone outside of the people you live with, for the two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving...so the activity got cancelled

Hudson took a nap for the first time in a long time, so I had to document it! Usually he just stayed in his crib and played for like 2 hours (instead of sleeping)...but he never complained, and I really needed the break from him to be able to focus on the big boys as they came home from school, so we did this "quiet time" every single afternoon, and it was amazing. And then he moved to a big boy bed and started potty training in January, and the quiet time went away...and I really miss it! 

Bless his heart--Hudson loves to help unload the dishwasher! In the picture on the right, he unloaded the dishwasher for the boys all by himself!! (with a little help from me to put the things up in the cupboards) He can be the best little helper! (and at two years old!)

For some reason, Curt takes the best Sunday naps when the kids are sitting on him...so Duke & Hallie were happy to oblige this day, haha:

I bought a new rug for myself for Christmas on a November sale, and when it came, I had to lay it out and take pictures so I could pick out some new throw pillows to put on my Christmas list for Curt's parents...and then I rolled it back up and waited to give it to myself on Christmas morning. ;)

It took a couple of weeks after we got our new white suburban in October, but we finally sold our beloved Hulk (green Yukon XL)--and this was the last shot I got of it as the people were signing the Bill of Sale and took it away:

This is 100% typical Hudson. This was on a Friday morning while I was helping the older boys with online school (Fridays used to always be online days). Hudson made a mess with paper, and being the sweet boy he is, he wanted to try to clean it up himself. So he went to the pantry to go get the broom...

...but in the process of getting the broom, he accidentally knocked over a jar of balsamic vinegar and spilled it ALL OVER the pantry (face palm). This is how it always is--he wasn't trying to make a mess, he was just trying to be independent and do something himself, and ended up making a giant mess in the process...!

With this one, however, I don't know what his end goal was. Curt & I were both upstairs doing something, and we came down to find that Hudson had been putting flour in Duke's dog food container......!!! Love this boy, but he gets into SO many things, and makes SO many messes! Things like this are a daily occurrence!

Hallie LOVES rice...and it makes such a mess haha!

Curt got to a point with finishing the basement where he couldn't do any more without having the permit issued, and he had a free Saturday, so he took the time to put up Christmas lights down at his parent's house, and then at our house too. (and thankfully, we got the permit the next Tuesday, so there weren't too many down days). Calvin had the important job of holding the ladder for Curt, and his hands got really cold, so Curt's mom let him borrow her gloves, hahahaha:

Now are our house:

Love, love, love our Christmas lights!

Curt got this picture of the gorgeous mountains while he was on our roof:

Hudson & Curt playing a fun hiding game, haha. I think I took this picture because both Hudson & I were so happy to have Curt help with bedtime one night! (instead of always being down in the basement)

Hudson & Hallie's first bath together--so cute!!

With all the boxes we had from doing the basement, the boys decided one Sunday to make a giant cardboard castle for Duke...and I'm not going to lie--it was pretty amazing!

It had two levels inside, with stairs and everything! And Duke *kind of* liked it because the boys hid food throughout it, so he would go into it when he wanted a little snack, haha:

We finally got the permit for the basement!!! Curt started working on the basement before we got the permit issued because we were pretty confident they wouldn't change anything from our plans, and we knew the permit would take awhile and we didn't want to have to wait. We submitted the permit on October 19th, Curt started working on the basement on Oct 26th, and we finally got the permit on Nov 17th! (even though they told us it would only take 1-2 weeks!) So in the three weeks that Curt worked, he got all the electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical done. All while it took more than four weeks for the city to issue a simple basement finish permit...

We had the 4-way inspection two days after the permit, and we passed! Here we were celebrating making it to the first inspection:

Hudson cuteness:

First time wearing his reindeer pajamas--he was so excited!

Everyone busted out their reindeer pajamas a few days before Thanksgiving:

Hudson wore a mask for the first time this day, and he kept it on for the full 45 minutes at church! I never knew a face mask could look so cute!

Cute Hallie in an adorable dress:

Hallie LOVES kisses from her big brothers:

A Bronco original, haha:

Even though Curt put up Christmas lights a few weeks before Thanksgiving, he was adamant that we didn't turn them on until AFTER Thanksgiving...he's a stickler about that. (eye roll)

Hudson still asks to hold Hallie every once in awhile, and it always cracks be up 

because she's starting to get almost as big as him! 

(she looks especially giant in this picture, even though she's not really that big!

We decided to make some new Christmas tree superhero ornaments this year--partially because we have Hallie now and we wanted to add in a few girls to what we had before, and partially because the superhero ornaments we had before were glass balls, and more and more were starting to break. So we started fresh with some new plastic balls, and we enlisted the boys to help us. It was quite the family affair!

Here are the finished products. Pretty awesome!

I have a picture of them all on the tree in our December phone pictures that I'll share.

Curt busted out his Christmas jacket and wore it to Bishopric meeting, haha:

And here was my Thanksgiving mantel:

And now for some videos....

Here is a typical ride in the Smith family car--full of kids constantly talking and/or screaming and making noise and being crazy...it's so much fun! (eye roll, crying face emoji)

Here's Hudson telling a story about Duke running away and running "really, really fast"--the way he said "really" was so cute!

Hudson really wanted to try feeding Hallie some baby food, and he actually did pretty well for a 2-yr-old!

Bronco loves Hallie so much and loves giving her zerbits (blowing on her belly, haha):

Hudson loved the book "Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?" for awhile, and we read it all the time. But it always got him super worked up because he would jump around and make all the sounds--not exactly the effect I was hoping for at bedtime, haha:

June Phone Pictures

We got home from Lake Powell, and the boys were all fighting over the leftover sweet cereal...so Curt & I were mean and ate it all and took a picture of us eating it...and then we printed the picture out and put it in the empty cereal box haha. (Curt's idea) The boys didn't think it was very funny when they found it the next morning...

Curt also tweaked his knee while tubing at Lake Powell, and it's taken months to heal. (#gettingold)

Duke got groomed for the first time since we've owned him...and it was a big change!!

The poor thing had all kinds of knots and weeds and things stuck in his fur, so they had to cut off a ton. 

He was so teeny!!

Hudson helped me make some coconut macaroons for Collin's birthday :)

Sweet, adorable Hallie girl:

Hudson loves to help me in the kitchen, and he loves to help with smoothies. I turned around this day, and he was scooping the yogurt in, all by himself...no big deal haha! (and he actually did a really good job!)

Smoothie mustache:

Date night with takeout Pollo Loco! My favorite! (and I love that the boys are old enough to leave at home for a little bit while the two youngest are in bed--total game changer with making date night possible)

Another Bronco & Hallie picture. He loves her so much.

Messy hands!

We were able to take my mom & Denex out on the boat with us, and it was fun! And my mom even got on a tube...!!!!! (going VERY slow, mind you, haha)

 

We had a rough night getting the kids to bed after going to the lake that night, and this was the only way Bronco would come upstairs haha. (though at the time it wasn't very funny...)

Curt got a new mountain bike! Like, a NEW bike--not a broken one that he had to fix up! (say what???!) And not even secondhand...!! He started getting back into mountain biking and going on rides every week, and his bike that he got before his mission just wasn't doing the job anymore, haha. But because he had upgraded different parts of that bike over the years, he was still able to sell it for almost as much as he bought his new bike for--which was crazy! (He got the new bike on a fantastic deal, of course.) It was the perfect way to reward himself for getting his new job. ;)

Curt has been riding every Saturday with the bishop in our new ward, and they've done some impressive rides! 

Curt's new bike helmet, with this hilarious sun visor that magnetizes on, haha: 

Who wore it better? Curt or Hudson? ;)

FATHER'S DAY. We went back to church for the first time since covid--it was super simple (just the sacrament and a thought from the Bishopric), and it was very, very safe (masks, sanitizer, social distancing, no singing, no touching anything, sanitizing both before & after, etc). It was so good to see other people (all 29 of us that were there haha), and good to be inside the church building again! But with Hudson refusing to wear a mask and licking (yes--licking!!) the pews and Hymn books and everything...we decided that we'll just continue doing our home church for awhile longer, haha. ;)

When I had Curt look through the different pictures I took of him with the kids, he picked this one as his favorite--even with Bronco about to sneeze and Calvin's tie hanging down and Hudson not looking at the camera--just because he loved Hallie's smile. :) Oh how I love this man and how grateful I am to have him as the father of our children. He loves them so much and expects a lot of them, but he is doing everything he can to teach them to be good, responsible, righteous young men, and I love him for it. We love you, Curt!

Family picture after church, just because someone offered to take it:

For Father's Day night we went down to Curt's parent's house for dinner--it was so nice of them to have us! And Curt got some good pictures of Mike with the kids:

This was a "Curt Smith special" as we've started calling it. He found this gas oven on facebook marketplace for free: they thought it had a leak and just wanted to get rid of it, but Curt was able to find what the problem was--and it wasn't a leak and didn't even need a new part! And then he sold our electric oven for $80, so we made a profit! We had a gas oven in our last house and loved it, and we've been wanting to replace the electric oven in our new house since we moved in...so this was perfect! And we're loving it!

We were able to visit Chad & Lisa, and we put Hallie and the twins next to each other for the first time--it was so crazy, and so fun! I still can't believe these babies exist--that we have a girl, and they have TWINS!! (And the twins are a little less than 3 months younger than Hallie, but they're about the same size in this picture, and bigger than Hallie now currently, haha) I'm so grateful they'll have each other to grow up with!

Here's a short video of them together:

Mom & Hallie selfie:

Dad & Hallie selfie:

Love this cute girl!

Sleeping on her stomach:

And pulling her bow down, hahaha:

Another date night--to this new delicious cheesecake place:

(And rather than just bring it home or sit in the car like we usually do thanks to covid, we decided to sit outside for a change)

First time having the whole family at the table for dinner--with Hallie in the bumbo seat:

Hudson holding Hallie is adorable (and slightly terrifying, haha)--and Bronco will always be nearby because he loves them both SO much:

Curt took the big boys on an impromptu bike ride to Utah Lake one Friday night after work!

I started out behind them, pushing Hudson & Hallie in the stroller, thinking we would see them as they turned around to come back (they were supposedly just going on a quick ride), but after 45 minutes without seeing them come back, I just turned around and went home to feed Hallie. But it was a fun little adventure for all of us. And I was so proud of the big boys for doing such a long ride--Bronco especially!

We had a hard time finding Duke one night and eventually found him in the blanket basket, all cuddled up:

And then he made himself comfortable on Curt like this another time, haha:

We were in need of a distraction/something different one night, so we got some promotional $1 Root Beer floats from Arby's...and they ended up being GIANT, haha! But they were a hit. :)

Something that I love about Curt working from home is that he's able to see and be with the kids so much more--and so I find pictures like this on his camera roll, and it melts my heart. :)

We tried out Utah Lake for the first time--and Collin & Rachel and even Cory & Allie came to join us! It's SO much bigger than Deer Creek where we usually go, so it's much less busy, but then it's also more shallow and the water was pretty choppy. But then it was only 10 minutes from our house which was amazing...so we decided we'll try it out more often, but I think we still prefer Deer Creek overall.

Someday we're going to go to the Lake and I'm not going to have a baby in my arms so I can actually help and participate, haha:

Random Sunday picture--with Duke in my lap and Hudson by my side:

My spring entry table decor:

(because of covid, I don't go to the store to shop for different decor items anymore, or to print out new prints, so I'm just making do with what I have around the house)

And this picture represents the many, many trips/mini date nights to Sonic after the kids are in bed. We (Curt) may be addicted to their flavored sodas that are half price through their app:

And now for some videos...

This is the reason Duke puts up with Hudson terrorizing him sometimes...because he also feeds him, haha:

Whenever Hudson is on the boat, he loves to open his mouth into the wind, and it's hilarious:

Hudson has perfected his spooner spinning...and he can go REALLY fast now!

Curt & the boys decided they wanted to teach Duke to go through a hoop, haha:

And then here's Bronco doing a running front flip on the trampoline: