Wonderful holiday memories!

Festivities began on Christmas Eve EVE...that is what we call it. :-) It was our 2nd Annual Cousin party and this year Blake and I hosted it. The evening was such a blast! We did a $20 gift exchange, ate and drank till we were over full, and the highlight of the night was playing a game of left, right, center. Bradley (Blake's brother) won the pot at the end of the game. As you can tell in the picture, Blake thought he deserved it too since it was his own cash that got Brad into the game. Good thing Blake is such a nice brother. We were glad Bradley won. He deserved it! Good times and good memories!

This Christmas season was so much fun with a little girl to share it with. Blake, Aubrey Rose and I were quite busy going from home to home or party to party, but all of it was so worth it! Here are a few pictures of our memories.
Christmas Eve we celebrated with my side of the family. We had a wonderful time laughing, sharing, eating dinner, opening gifts and being completely entertained by Aubrey Rose. Oh, and we were busy trying to teach Aubrey how to walk!! I know I will probably regret that later on when she is running everywhere, but right now it is pretty fun to watch her take steps on her own.







Then, for Christmas morning we started with breakfast at my parents for a quick hour or so before we headed to Bill and Linda's to celebrate. Bradley, Blair, Blake's parents and the three of us celebrated and opened gifts and then shortly after, Linda's parents arrived along with her brother, Uncle Gary for more presents and an EXCELLENT lunch that Bill and Linda prepared perfectly. It was delicious!
Here is a picture after breakfast at my parents. We were done with breakfast and out the door to the next family time by at 9am.


And now at Bill and Linda's:










Then, we actually got to go home for two hours while Aubrey got to sleep. That worked out well and prepped her for the evening festivities. We went to Uncle Bob's by about 4:30. We had an excellent dinner of pretty much anything and everything you could think of. It was absolutely marvelous and so delicious! Thank you to Uncle Bob and everyone else who participated. We had a wonderful time catching up, meeting new additions to the family (whether they were babies or new boyfriends...we loved them all!), laughing, eating, more eating, taking pictures and making more family memories. It was a wonderful evening. In Blake's extended side of the family most of the cousins are all similar age as us, so it is always a joy to be with them and be enjoying the similar seasons in life together. After dinner we went to Aunt Carol's house with all the cousins and played games and talked some more. Thanks for another wonderful time to together!

She makes me smile!

Aubrey Rose makes me smile almost all day long! I can NOT say all day, every day, because there are definitely moments that I am not sure how to handle this little child. Like a couple of days ago I was filling the dishwasher. I think Aubrey thought she wanted to help. The first thing she reaches for is a butter knife, yeah so I took that away REALLY fast, closed up the dishwasher and she threw, I think, her first tantrum. I am talking fell straight to the floor, face down, screaming, crying, kicking her legs, acting as though I stole the world from her. Anyway, there are some moments throughout the day that are very trying as a mom, however now that I am thinking about this story she makes me smile and laugh again. I love our sweet Aubrey Rose. There are definitely things that she does that make me think she has my personality or Blake's, and the other day I caught her doing something that was so cute and I think she comes by it honestly. :-) She was looking out the windows at the front door, just watching, looking as though she was waiting for her friends to come. It was so precious. She was probably watching the leaves fall or even more so, cars driving by, but the way she was looking out the window, it made me think she was waiting for her friends. I just thought it was so cute. So then we had a take a couple of more pictures of my cutie pie. Enjoy!

We love Christmas time!

So I am playing a little catch up tonight on things I have been wanting to get done but haven't been able to yet. Updating my blog is one. We are all decorated for Christmas around our house. I still can't believe another year has passed us by, however Aubrey Rose reminds me on a regular basis just by looking at her that time is moving quickly. She is 9 months old, which means one year is just around the corner. That is too crazy! Decorating for Christmas will so different next year. She will be able to help....well kind of. :-) It was fun to decorate this year being in a new house. Here are some pictures of our house in the Christmas spirit.

Here is Blake and Aubrey Rose looking for our Christmas tree.

Let the festivities begin!!

We Smittcamp's LOVE any kind of party!!! And this week and weekend was filled with them. This past Wednesday night we had so much fun walking down Christmas Tree Lane with the whole Patricio family. We just LOVE the Patricio's! They make us feel like we are family, which we are so very thankful for! Then, Thursday night we had a wonderful evening spent at Bill and Linda's house. They hosted a holiday party on benefiting Children's Hospital. Their house is sooooooo very beautiful all the time, but especially this time of the year with the Christmas decorations. It was a great evening!





Friday night came quickly and we accomplished A LOT! We celebrated an early Christmas with the Penner side of the family. We had dinner at my parents house, then went Christmas caroling at a couple of people's houses, then walked through Candy Cane Lane in Clovis to see the pretty lights and the Moerman's even had SNOW on their yard! After walking through the neighborhood we went back for dessert and then we did our entertaining gift exchange. For this everyone gets to open a gift, then we take dice and if you get doubles then you can steal someones gift or if no doubles you pass the dice to the next person. People are constantly stealing...definitely craziness for 10 straight minutes! We put the timer on for 10 minutes and at the end of the buzzer everyone is stuck with what they have...good or bad. It is so much fun, especially with like 20 or so people! Here are some of the memories from the evening...


For this next picture with my sister and my mom, there must have been a camera facing the other way because she is still smiling just not looking at our camera! I love that girl!


Aunt Christy looooooves Aubrey Rose too! She is so sweet to my little girl. Thanks Christy!!!!

Some of the cousins. Jesse just can't take a serious picture.

Oh what a year does! All these guys became dads this year, and they are doing a phenomenal job at it too!!

So this was the gift Jesse was so lucky to go home with! The funny thing was, and so fitting for my brother, he chose the gift! He stole it from someone so that he could go home with this new prize possession.

Oh his lucky wife! Thanks Allie for putting up with him!


Saturday we got to experience the most beautiful party. My cousin Jon, married the most amazingly creative event planner. Andrea is so sweet to spoil close friends and family with a Christmas celebration. Blake and I were absolutely blessed to be apart of it. This was such a fun evening. Thank you so much to Jon and Andrea for such amazing hospitality and their kindness for spoiling all of us with such a beautiful evening!

















And then Sunday quickly rolled around as well. It began with a fun Christmas celebration at church. It was so fun to have all the children involved. It was wear your tacky Christmas sweater. It was hilarious!


Here are all the tacky sweaters. It was a riot!


Sunday afternoon Aubrey and I had a wonderful time at Logan DeManby's 2 year old birthday party. It was at the Little Gym. Aubrey Rose LOVED all the entertainment! Thank you Travis and Katie for making us feel so special and for such a fun afternoon!



Logan, Aubrey Rose and Grace Scalzo

This is the best we could do. Logan DeManby is on the left and Taylor is in back. So fun!


You would think after a weekend like that we would be pooped. Well Blake is on his way right now to Minnesota for work and I am home still excited about my weekend while Aubrey Rose is sleeping. She is pooped. She is definitely my little trooper though! Aubrey Rose this is what, we, Smittcamp's do! And we wouldn't have it any other way!