The Living Planet Aquarium/Noah feeding the Sting Ray

Noah and I have been trying to find neat things to do over Christmas Break. Chris has picked up a lot of hours at work so it leaves just me and Noah to hang out. Today we went to Sandy, Utah to the "Living Planet Aquarium". It was so much fun. They had a shark tank and Sea horses. They had a open part where you could pet the Sting Rays. They felt so nasty! Noah had a lot of fun. At 2pm they feed the sting rays and they have 10 spots open for children over 5 to feed the sting rays. I got Noah a ticket and he was able to feed them. It was so funny to watch because they get so excited and start splashing all over the place and all the kids screamed and jumped back.

Just wanted to add a few of my favorite pictures of Christmas! Hope you enjoy them!

Merry Christmas 2009!

Well, this year things were a little different. This was mine and Noah's 1st Christmas away from family. Chris was away from family for 2 Christmas' when he was serving his mission, not that it made it any easier for him. Anyway, it wasn't too bad. We spent Christmas eve and Christmas day with our friends, The Banks'. They are a lot of fun to hang out with and have become family for us here. We had a great Christmas inspite of the lack of family. Santa was good to Noah as always and he got more than her deserved. I love watching his facial expressions every Christmas. He got everything he wanted and then some. He souldn't be bored for a long time. He has plenty to do. Chris was very good to me this year as well. He always is. He is such a great husband. He got me the Cricut machine that I have been wanting soooooo bad and a BYU sweatshirt. I have wanted one for a while and every time I say something about going to the bookstore to get one he always says....."no we don't have the money". Well he must have found some money somewhere because I got one for Christmas. He also say that I had a ribbon in my jeans the other day and asked me what that was. I told him that my belt had broken and I didn't have one so I took the ribbon off of one of my skirts and was using that. He got me an awesome belt too. He did really good this year. I am super lucky. My mother in law and mom do so much for us as well and like always they both over did it this year, but I am soooo grateful for them too. They are always looking out for us! Chris got quite a bit too. He always makes out good at Christmas because I have a shopping problem and will find any excuse to do so. We had dinner with The Banks' and it was amazing. Then we just relaxed. The Sunday before Christmas we went to Temple Square and checked out the lights there. It was so neat. We had never been before so it was a great experience for us, even if it was freezing outside. It was so worth it. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Well, with our recent move and the lack of space we had to move all of our stuff, we ended up having to leave our Christmas tree and all of our decorations behind. While it was sad, I was in a way happy. If you don't have your Christmas stuff then you must go out and buy more. I love to shop so I had fun doing it. I think our tree turned out pretty good this year. I will have to have my mom ship me my ornaments and things but for this year we will have to make do without it. I am glad we got a new tree because I always got in a bad mood when it came to decorating the tree because of the lights. I had getting them just right on the tree and untangling them and all that stuff. This year pre-lit tree. Best thing we ever did. Putting up the tree was great. Noah has a blast and put the ornaments in good spots this year. He is learning how to do it nicely. We didn't have a cluster of ornaments in one spot. Chris was on the couch putting all the hanger things in the ornaments and handing them to me and Noah. It didn't take long at all. In our family it is always tradition to put the tree up after Thanksgiving. I couldn't wait. I have been so excited for this holiday season. I am not sure why but I haven't been stressed at all and have really just been enjoying it. Chris finally gave in to me and my whining and let me put the tree up the Monday before Thanksgiving. My dad was not amused and thought that it was too early, however I have just gotten word that their tree isn't even done yet and Christmas is in a week. Not that I did, but if I had felt bad about breaking tradition, I now don't. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ice Skating

This past Saturday we went to our friends ward Christmas party. It was so much fun. We went Ice Skating. They had subs, Pizza, Nachos and cheese, hot chocolate, and Santa came. We had a blast ice skating. Chris did awesome. I am surprised he remembered how. He did really good. Noah did awesome too. He only fell twice. That is pretty good for his first time. I had so much fun. I didn't do too bad and I didn't fall. The Banks' have a great ward. Everyone had fun and was very friendly. I hope that we will be able to go ice skating quite a bit while we are here. I love all the awesome activities they have here. We are always doing something fun.

Winter 2009

It has really been awhile since I have last blogged. Where to begin??? Well Chris is almost done with his first semester here at BYU. He is doing great. I knew he would. He is so smart and dedicated that I knew he would do well. Chris isn't one of those guys that does enough to get by. He always does above and beyond. I am so proud of him. He is enjoying ROTC. He really enjoys the workout. He likes to be in shape and so this is much better than a gym membership. With the ROTC they pay us and he gets to work out for free. It is great. This first semester has really gone by quick. I remember thinking that 3 years was a long time but really I think that it will go by very quickly and I will be wishing to have that time back.



Noah is continuing to do great in school. He works really hard and is a great student. No behavior problems at all so far this year. I am very happy about that. He loves Utah and all the things he gets to do around here. There is so much to do and for cheap or even free. Last week we got snow. About 25 inches. We bought Noah and kids snowboard and a sled so all this week he has been snowboarding and sledding. He has done more snowboarding than anything. He has never done that before and so I was a little scared for him at first. I am not sure why. He is a natural athlete. He picks up on things like that and the technique of it so quickly. He is having a blast.

Who would have thought that I, Amy Smith, would ever like the snow. I was so worried about it when we were planning our move to Utah. I have been waiting as the days grew colder and closer to winter that the snow would start coming. What was I going to do? I don't know how to drive in snow. Do people in Utah buy the stores out of milk, eggs, and bread? Well, Utah is very equipped and on the ball. Snow started Saturday night and the roads weren't that bad. It continued to snow Sunday night and they were out plowing the streets at 3am. When it was time to take the kids to school the roads weren't that bad compared to the way it would have been in Virginia. I actually enjoyed sledding too. I would have never pictured myself out in the snow, cold and wanting to stay so we can go down just one more time. It was like I was a kid all over again. I LOVE it!!!!!!!!!! So looks like this winter might not be as bad as I thought. I actually might be OK here!