Friends and a wedding??

We had 2 families from church over last weekend. The adults has a nice time talking and the kids had a blast playing together. I took the group picture with my camera, but I didn't know about the wedding that apparently went on upstairs. I was looking through pictures on Camille's digital camera and found the one of the happy couple, Colby and Camille. It looks like Evan was the best man and Abby must have been the photographer. Perhaps Lily and little Aaron were wedding guests! The bride was wearing a velvet wedding dress and a white skirt turned upside down to be a veil.

Happy New Year

Oops, I thought I was caught up with pictures, but I forgot about New Years Eve. The girls were excited to celebrate. We had special treats after dinner, special potato chips, candy still left from Halloween and special grape/black cherry juice. It was cold and rainy earlier in the day. We drove to buy some sparklers on the 31st (way to think ahead, Steph), and luckily the girls were good and stayed in the car while I hopped through the mud to get to the fireworks stand.

It was quite cold that evening, but not raining. Camille and Lily showed off their Baylor spirit, even if we appear to have no sense of fashion:)

Matt had the idea to use the grill to light the sparklers, and that worked nicely. Plus there was the added benefit of the grill heat to warm us up a little bit. Both girls were thrilled with the sparklers.

Last cake decorating class

Here is my last cake of my decorating class. I was pleased how this turned out. It tastes the best of all the cakes I've made because I used a different icing. I learned a lot in the class.

Cake decorating

This is my first cake from cake decorating class. Considering I am a person who makes yummy but not so pretty birthday cakes, I was pleased with how it turned out.

I initially thought the clown cake was a dumb idea, but it ended up being pretty fun to make. We started learning how to make roses for next week, and I couldn't resist going ahead and putting them on my cake too. It's a hodge-podge of decoration techniques I was trying out. The clown sitting on the left is Lily. The middle clown had a long body and legs. At the class I called him Uncle Doug, but the kids now call the clown Daddy. The clown lying down on the right is Camille.

When I got home from class last week I practiced with the rest of my icing. I used Camille's finger and made a rose. She was thrilled and then ate it up!

Smith animal news

Kady cat loves the guinea pig, or at least she loves to cuddle up next to him. Maybe she figures she'll just patiently wait until I'm not looking and the cage comes open. Kady has actually become too interested in Fudgy, even swatting at him recently. So, now when Fudge comes out, Kady has to be shut in my room.

Kady may think insulting thoughts about Fudge being a rodent, but now we just have to call Kady "potty mouth." I find her drinking from the toilet all the time now. It's her favorite place. She doesn't even touch her water bowl anymore. This is her "you're bothering me look." She hardly runs off anymore when you find her on the toilet. One night I went to use the bathroom without turning on the light and felt her swish out from under me as I sat down. We almost had one wet, squished cat! Even the kids potty seats don't deter her.

Today we had fun building an impromptu ramp for Fudge to see if he could get in and out of the cage by himself. The first try he ran right up the ramp and into his cage. The 2nd try he took a while and then finally ran home. Tonight we tried again and he was having too much fun running around, with no interest in going home. Fudge cannot get out by himself because he can't climb. Camille really wanted to build him a ramp inside, but it's really not going to work.

Goofy kids! I heard the girls playing and then came in to find Lily crammed into the doll cradle and Camille rocking her to sleep. She even found Daddy's sweatshirt to use as a "blanket."

Gotta love Shrinky Dinks! (They're called something else now, but you heat them in the oven just like when I was a kid.) Camille and Lily both had fun making some with Aunt Krissie.

Camille funny

This funny story is from way back at Thanksgiving. Camille's class dressed up as Pilgrims and Native Americans for a school feast. She was very proud of her school-made costume, which I did agree was clever. I didn't attend the feast. When she got home she put on her Pilgrim costume. While she was putting on the apron (made from a white kitchen trash bag) she said, "I know it's a trash bag, but it's what they wore!!" Poor thing was confused!

White Christmas!

Christmas Eve snow 2009 in Dallas! Camille and Lily had a blast catching snowflakes on their tongues and writing their names in the snow.

Cookies for Santa.

Sometimes even on Christmas eve kids won't cooperate for pictures

We went to visit Camille and Lily's friend Daniel and my friend Becky in east Texas. Somehow, I didn't end up getting a picture of Camille. They were all moving all the time.

The kids were cute at my birthday dinner. They both helped me blow out my candle.

One day I got out my flute and let Camille try it. That inspired Matt to get out his trumpet too. Camille really liked honking on the trumpet.

Here are the girls with their new bear/dog from Build A Bear.

We made a trip to Frisco to see their Christmas lights outside. It was impressive. We waited in a very long line to ride the train around. At the last minute Camille was allowed to sit alone up in the front of the train. No adults were allowed up there, Because the train drove quite a long way, we couldn't allow Lily to ride in the front. Lily was devistated to be left out and threw a huge fit, not wanting to get in another car with me. Luckily we were locked in and after we got going, Lily decided to enjoy the ride! The pictures show Lily at the beginning and the end of the ride.

We got there early because Santa was supposed to parachute out of an airplane. It was quite cold, but the kids had a great time playing around a fountain and just generally goofing around. Because of clouds, Santa didn't jump after all. Bummer.

Fire hats at Fire House subs. Do you see Lily giving the thumbs up?

More thumbs up. The girls are nuts for creamcheese fruit dip and strawberries!

Since I've been staying home I've had time to volunteer at Camile's school. This day all the kindergarten classes were having a project together making pinatas. The kids were impressively quiet and well-behaved.

Belated Christmas concert photos

Yes, I'm absurdly behind on posting to the blog. Sorry!

Lily was excited and had fun in her first Christmas concert at school. Lily was very distracted during the concert by teachers running things on the side, as well as the necessary props around like cords an CD players. She was so cute up there in her red and black dress!

Before the concert the kids were literally climbing the walls out in the hall!

Camille also had a great time singing in her Christmas concert with her choir at church. Lily was excited to sit in the audience. When the first song for Camille's choir class started Lily, called out "Hey, I know that. It's Camille's song!" (We had listened to the songs often in the car to help Camille learn them.) Lily sang all the words to Camille's songs loudly during the performance, entertaining the people around us. Camille was put in charge of her friend in the choir (a boy who also has autism) by his mother. She just asked Camille to remind the boy to behave. The boy really likes Camille, always wanting to stand next to Camille, but Camille took the job to heart and a bit overboard. What can you expect from a 6 year-old who likes to be in charge! Later in the Christmas program (which was in mid December) the narrator said "It's Christmas!" and then with laughter in her voice like she had just been told a joke, Lily called out loudly "No it isn't!" She took it literally, knowing that day wasn't Christmas day. For some unknown reason later on during applause Lily put up her bear claw and called out "Hey, Sic 'em Bears!"

Here are pictures from Matt and Camille's YMCA Princess float. They decorated the fishing boat and really had to bundle up because the temperature was in the 20s that day!!