Ernie's Last Days

The tail end of the adventure for another year. 

Ernie decided to give the boys an early Christmas gift. . .

I thought it was hilarious, the boys just shook their heads (but they smiled a little, too)!

Ernie erected a shrine to his antics from last year.

Up, Up and Away in my magical, my magical chocolate chip bag balloon.

Ernie playing a Christmas tune.

This year Ernie trapped the boys in their rooms with wrapping paper, epic!!!

They had to bust their way out on Christmas morning, ha, ha--I could hear when they got up!

Once again, Ernie ends the year by reminding us what Christmas is all about.

Here are some jokes he did that I didn't get photos of this year:  Hiding in Brigham's snow boots (gross!!); Having an all night Christmas movie marathon without us; squashing himself into an ornament so he could be a part of our tree decorations.  Hiding the Baby Jesus (each year we do an activity about the wise men and how wise men still seek for Jesus--after a spiritual video and scripture, we take turns hiding the Baby Jesus and everyone else has to seek to find Him--Ernie felt left out so he hid the Baby Jesus while we were asleep, it took the boys a while to find it).

Ernie has to go away for another year, but I think he is already planning for some hijinks next year, don't count him out, he has lots of tricks up his sleeve!!!  Bye, Ernie!

You're going where?

The call finally came. . .Mitchell is going to the Roseville, California mission.  He will speak English and he enters the MTC on February 19th.  We are all very excited. . .now the busy-ness starts!!!

Ho, Ho, Ho

Here are a few pics of our Christmas.  It was a very laid back affair, thank goodness.

Stockings loaded and ready.

The plethora of gifts.

Ready to tear it up.

New camera for mission memories.

RC Helicopter.  Never to old to do that stuff.

His favorite gift, a book on how to illustrate dragons, who knew!

iHome so he can listen to his music waaay too loud.

The elusive iPod he wanted for his birthday.  It was his only gift besides a book.

Gag gift, Parker said he wanted to come back from hunting with a beard.  He got one for Christmas instead.

14 in 1 robot kit.

Lego-mania.

Harley was bored with the whole thing.

After the mayhem.  We had a great Christmas!!

Perfecting the Grill

Well, a grill would be cooler, but, alas, teenagers get stuck with braces instead of diamond studded mouthpieces.  Stockton got a full set of braces that are green (wish they had cool colors when I had braces), and should have them on for about 2 years. 

This is not his actual mouth, but you get the idea with the color.

Parker got away with only an Invisalign retainer on the bottom.  It looks something like this. . .

I thought internet pics would be a little better than showing you their actual mouths (you're welcome).  Now, we wait for those pearly whites to straighten out.  Brigham still has too many baby teeth to start, but he too will need braces.  Mitchell will get braces when he gets back from his mission because he also needs an impacted tooth to be moved into place.

Welcome to tinsel town at the Smith home.  A huge thank you also goes out to our Orthodontist, he rocks!!!

-7 Degrees Outside, Sweet, Let's Go Take Family Photos

Yep, that's right.  I picked the wrong day to take pictures for the family Christmas card.  Oh well, we are tough.  The cold keeps the riff-raff out of our state.  Here are the family pictures for the card this year.

Our handsome boys.

The whole crew on our road.

Mitchell-Age 19

Stockton-Age 17

Parker-Age 14



Brigham-Age 12

Still in love after all these years.

In front of our barn.  We tried to get the dog in, but it was too cold outside for her.

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

You know you started singing the song when you read the title (don't deny it).  Brigham has been participating in a Lego Robotics League at school.  They went on a field trip to the Career Center in Billings that is part of the Billings School District.  At this school they offer awesome classes like, animation, engineering, construction, biomedical sciences, web design, graphic design/digital photo design, culinary arts, veterinary science, etc.  It is awesome. 

They had a presentation by a computer science professor from MSU who also works on the Predator drones.  He did a great presentation on robotics and talked about all the different people it takes to actually get a robot fully functional. His team of college students have won several world titles at robotics competitions.

Here are some photos of robots he brought with him.

A dog robot that does all kids of funny stuff.  Here his is "peeing".

This is Looney the Robot who is an NAO humanoid robot.  The robot dances and can be programmed to do just about anything.  The presenter wrote a program for the robot to do funny stuff while going through a TSA checkpoint at the airport.  It was awesome!!!  You can see videos of Looney on YouTube.

After the presentation, the kids had the opportunity to do a couple of engineering challenges by competing against kids in their field trip group.  They also learned about the robotics competition the kids at the Career Center are doing this year and watched the robot in action.

They were given one sheet of copy paper and some tape.  They had to make the structure as high as they could with only those two things that was free standing (it could not be taped to the table).  They came in second place with a height of 32 inches.  Wow!!!

The second challenge was a build a raft from straws and tape that could float and hold weight.  Their raft again came in second, holding up 22 pennies.  Engineering and robots are very cool!!

More Capers from Ernie the Naughty Elf

The saga continues. . .

Enhancing the boy's portrait. . .

bad, yet funny, elf.

Ernie decided to graffiti the windows again this year.  Parker thought it was lame that Ernie did a repeat from last year, and proceeded to write the word "lame" in the white snow Ernie used to do his urban art.  Therefore. . .

. . .the next night, Ernie went on strike.  Note the "Kids R Rude" sign.  Ernie will have to pay Parker back for that little stunt.  Watch out, dude, you crossed the wrong elf!

I think we may need to discuss "appropriate" behavior with Ernie.  Here is trying to get fresh with an angel from one of the nativity scenes.

Jared's M&Ms are not safe with an elf in the house.

Ernie stowed away in the car when we went to Butte and stayed overnight at Cory & Sarah's house.  He tricked their nice snowman, Buddy, into switching out their family's stocking with underwear.  Ernie is a bad influence, hopefully he won't follow us home and Cory & Sarah can deal with his ridiculousness.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree. . .at the Christmas School Concert

I forgot the camera for Stockton's concert (normal).  But I did take my brain and camera to Brigham's concert.  Here are some shots from the festive night.

Showing his sweet dance moves.

One of his speaking parts.

Bringing it home as the only French Horn player in the band.

He's ba-ack. . .and he's NAUGHTY!!

Much to the boys' chagrin, Ernie the Naughty Elf is back for another season of mischief.  Here are some of his antics.

Starting off right..."24 days 'til Christmas. . .it begins".

He felt left out of the tree decorating, so he decorated his own tree.

Leaving a message for the boys, the meaning will become clear in a later post.

 

He must have partied a little too hard while we were sleeping one night, he was hanging from the dining room chandelier.

Adding his own "light" to the tree by wrapping himself in glow-in-the dark rings.

I think I can, I think I can (psyching himself up for a full season of pranks).