Family Top Ten, 2014

It has been a wonderful, memorable year for our family, filled with blessings and learning experiences.  Here are our top ten events of 2014:

#10:  Winter Olympics in Sochi/World Cup:  We spent many hours together as a family, cheering on team USA in both the Olympic games and the World Cup. So exciting!

#9:  Trevor and Megan's Wedding: Such a beautiful event, made even more special because Grandma Smith, Nancy and Linda were here to celebrate with us.

#8:  Summer Bucket List:  We had a great time crossing off all the activities on our list.  It kept us busy all summer!

#7: Fall Break at Zermatt:  A fun family weekend near beautiful Park City. 

#6:  Temple 2 Temple 5K/Thankful 13 Half Marathon: What a great way to get some exercise, stay in shape and enjoy a fun family activity.   

#5:  Cheer Competition in Anaheim/Disneyland: We enjoyed the warm California weather, our beautiful hotel and supporting Stefanie. 

#4:  Smith Family Reunion in Indiana: Super fun summer adventure at beautiful Lake Patoka.  We also spent an awesome afternoon sightseeing in downtown Chicago.

#3:  Stefanie in High School:  She has thrived as a sophomore at LHS, including her experiences as a member of the LHS Cross Country Team and going to the Footlocker race in California.

#2:  Braden's Mission in Honduras: We will never forget this year of supporting our full-time missionary son. Such a bittersweet experience. We love and miss him so much! 

#1:  First Grade Teacher at Lehi Elementary:  A dream came true for me and the answer to many prayers. I couldn't love it more!

And there it is, our top ten of 2014.  We are so thankful to our Heavenly Father for the incredible blessings he has given to each member of our family this year. Truly our cup runneth over.

Last Missionary Letter of 2014

Hola, my son, happy New Year! It was awesome talking to you on Thursday, we loved it!  You looked and sounded so great!  Definitely the highlight of our day. 

After that, Rachel and George took off and we spent the rest of the day playing with our new toys and electronics. Here is Stefanie with her favorite Christmas stuff.

On Christmas Eve we saw the new Hobbit movie and went out to dinner at an Italian place in Salt Lake. We love our Christmas Eve traditions! Monday we had a fun FHE with the Smith fam…Curtis and Marla and girls, Sarah and Derek, Billy's family, Trevor and Megan...a houseful of people! Maren stayed overnight with Stefanie, they are cute cousins!  

Dad is in the middle of a Christmas basketball tournament, it started on Saturday. All three teams won their first game, hooray! Dad will be gone most of the day today and tomorrow, the championship game will be played on New Years Eve. Hopefully Lehi will be in it! We were planning to go to Preston for New Years Eve, but we can't make any out-of-town plans. Rachel and George and Stefanie will drive up to Preston that day, then maybe Dad and I will follow them later on, depending on the status of the tournament.   

Stefanie has some good news…on Saturday she passed the Driver's Ed. test to get her learner's permit! She was pretty excited. She was hoping to beat both you and Rachel by passing on the first try…but unfortunately it didn't work out that way.  You hold the record by taking it twice…both girls ended up passing on their third. Stefanie will take Driver's Ed. in the spring, she can hardly wait.

Well, not much news to tell you since we just talked on Thursday. I guess I will sign off with a spiritual thought. One of my favorite Christmas moments this year was one morning when I was awake before anyone else, so I turned on the Christmas tree lights, snuggled up in my electric blanket and read the eighth chapter of "Jesus the Christ".  It is all about the birth of Jesus. Here is an excerpt that was meaningful to me...

 "The testimonies concerning the birth of the Messiah are from two extremes, the lowly shepherds in the Judean field, and the learned Magi from the far east. We cannot think this is the result of mere chance, but that in it may be discerned the purpose and wisdom of God. He raised up to Himself witnesses among the people to testify that Messiah was born. But there were classes of people among the Jews whom these lowly shepherd witnesses could not reach. Hence, God raised up another class of witnesses--the wise men from the east--witnesses that could enter the royal palace of King Herod. So indeed God raised up witnesses for Himself to meet all classes and conditions of men--the testimony of shepherds for the poor and the lowly; the testimony of wise men for the haughty king and proud priests of Judea. So that of the things concerning the birth of Messiah, His disciples could say, 'these things were not done in a corner''."

So cool!  I had never thought about it like that. I will never look at another nativity scene in the same way.  

I hope you will have a super fun p-day today with Elder Glassett!  I gave him a big hug last week and told him to pass it on to my boy!   

Have a great week! Love, Mom

Christmas Card, 2014

Merry Christmas from the Smith Family, 2014

Jazz Bear Shopping

Hola my son, Feliz Navidad!  Your second and last Christmas as a missionary! We are so excited to talk to you on Thursday!  We will have everything ready to go with our SKYPE account, we are just waiting to hear what time.  It will be the highlight of our entire season. 

So how was your week?  How is Elder Porter doing, is he back to good health?  I am happy for you that you got assigned to a companion that you like.  It seems that you have had some really good companions throughout your mission and gotten along well with them all, what a blessing!  I know that is not always the case for everyone. We have been praying for Franklin this week and hope he is progressing in the gospel. Looking forward to an update. 

We had a good week, the Lehi basketball team is on FIRE! We are now 7-0, can you believe it?  This week we beat Maple Mountain by three after a ten point deficit. The Lehi gym was louder than we have ever heard it.  The fans are pretty excited, we are getting a bigger following every game. So exciting! 

You have another new cousin!  Luke Palmer was born on Tuesday morning. That is three new little cousins you will get to meet when you return…Paige and Luke on the Kindred side, and Lydia on the Smith side. We haven't officially met baby Luke yet, I think we will go for a visit sometime this week. 

Do you remember Jazz Bear shopping at Christmastime with elementary students when you were in high school?  This year I was asked to be a chaperone for the kiddos from Lehi Elementary. Oh my goodness, it was so awesome!  The entire high school gym was filled with LHS volunteers.  

We rode the bus from my school to the high school, had breakfast, a visit from Santa, then back on the buses for a quick trip to Walmart.  Those little kids were so thrilled to be the center of attention.  What a great program, it really put me in the Christmas spirit!  I think I will volunteer to help every year.

Last night Dad and I went to Elder Glassett's home.  Their family is heading to Honduras on Christmas night so Sister Glassett offered to personally deliver a package to you!  Hooray! We ended up staying at their house and visiting for over an hour.  They are such nice people, we love them! Zach told us lots of stories from the mission, he made us laugh so hard.  

It was such a fun week in my first grade classroom!  We had a school "Christmas Sing" for all the parents--I got to choose and direct two songs sung by the entire first grade. Then on Thursday we had a class party by three of the moms, and on Friday we had a big assembly where Santa made an appearance.  So fun.  

Love you!  Hope you had an awesome week!  See you on Thursday!  ~Mom

Choir Concert

Hola my son!  We know you had changes this week, Elder Yac finished his mission, and we have been anxiously waiting to hear about your new companion and if you are still in Choluteca.  Did you travel to Tegucigalpa?  Did President Bowler do his big Power Point presentation, with all the suspense and excitement?  Can't wait to hear all about it!

This week was good for the Lehi Basketball team, they had two intense, hard fought games this week and won them both!  On Tuesday they were at Mountain View and beat them by 3 points. On Friday they played at Provo and beat them in double overtime--the second overtime win of the season! Lehi is now 6-0, awesome!  They have one game this week, then a tournament between Christmas and New Years, then will start region play.  Super exciting!

Monday we had a couple of cute visitors at our house...your little cousins Shane and Paige! Tami and Brady had a work Christmas party in Draper so they dropped off the kiddos  for a few hours.  It was fun, we don't have little ones at our house very often! Rachel and George came over and we all just played all evening.  Cute kids!

Last night (Saturday) was the highlight of the week for me...Dad and I got tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. Oh my goodness, it was wonderful! We got there early enough to walk through Temple Square and see the lights, then we took our seats in the Conference Center.  For the next two hours we basked in the Christmas spirit, I loved it.  We sat next to Grandma and Grandpa Kindred and Kevin.  A magical evening! 

 

So that sums up our week! This is the last week of school before the Christmas break, my little first graders are buzzing with excitement!  I'm pretty sure there will not be much learning taking place in my classroom this week, haha!  I really love this time of year, and especially the opportunity to think about the birth and mission of our Savior.  We can't wait to see you and talk to you on Skype on Christmas day!  So glad President Bowler had a change of heart about that!  Do you know what time you will be able to call?  Is there still a 40 minute time limit?  Can't wait!  I love you so much and hope you've had a great week. 

Love, Mom

Footlocker

Hola my son, how are you this week?  Did you have a good week?  We are well into December now, I hope you are feeling the Christmas spirit. Did you get the chance to watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional tonight?  I loved Elder Christofferson's talk.  It is always a privilege to hear the words of our prophets and leaders. 

We have had a good week, Stefanie just got back from Footlocker!  I dropped her off on Thursday morning and we just picked her up from the high school about an hour ago. We have been listening to all her funny stories.  Here is a word from her...

"Hi brother, this is Stefanie. I went to California to footlocker this week. Did you and Michael throw water balloons out of your window?  Cause that's what I heard. Lehi got kicked out of that hotel because of you, haha.  Footlocker was good lots and lots of big hills in the race there, and it was super warm for december! Coach Rowe also told me a few funny stories about you! You were a crazy child! and we also went to the beach and swam in the ocean! Hope your mission is going swell.(:" 

So Dad had quite a week, he coached three games this week! West, Hunter and Jordan. The best game of the week was Saturday night when the varsity team beat Jordan in double overtime! The JV and Varsity are now both 4-0, sophomores have lost once. The season is shaping up to be a good one!  Here is a word from Dad...

"Hey my boy, Dad here.  Couple of things that I wanted to chime in about. I was thinking about the time I was a zone leader. There were two types of ZLs: those who thought that they were somehow better than other missionaries, they talked down to us and had a superior attitude.  Then there were the ZLs that just wanted to help each missionary reach their full potential. They tried to bring out the best in everyone and help them grow. It's like being a missionary coach!"

Point two: Western Wyoming might be the only solid offer you get before you return home. All the other schools want to see you first, and have you as a walk-on type of a situation. So if you want a sure bet it is probably going be at Rock Springs. if not we will take some road trips or wait to see on BYU and then go from there.  

Proud of you and all your letters. I love to read them. Stef thinks you're  weird but I love the insight and growth I've seen. Keep working hard and good things will happen.  Love you, Dad

Mom again…just wanted to remind you how much I love you and how proud I am of you. Can't wait to read your letter.  

Love, 

The Fam