Merry Christmas

Last Saturday morning we woke up and were out the door by 6:00 AM to start our trek down to SLC. We wanted to make sure we were only driving in daylight, as we knew we would hit some pretty rough mountain passes that would probably be snowing. The plan was to drive from Surrey to Middleton ID, were we would stay with our friends.

We were making great time, we went through the Snoqulamie pass...which we really expected to be a lot worse than it was...and headed towards Idaho. We really thought things were going great until we hit Le Grande Oregon. It was then EVERYTHING went wrong. They had closed the highway due to 5 jack-knifed semi's. They said it would be closed for at least a couple of hours. We got there at 2:oo PM and it had closed around 1:30. So we headed over to Denny's to eat and wait it out.. When we arrived at Denny's there was NO snow, when we left Denny's about an hour later...there was probably about 2 inches of snow on the ground!! CRAZY!!

We then headed over to Starbucks to pick up wireless and see if we could find out if the highway was open yet. To our surprise it was!! It was now about 4:00 PM. We decided we better just get going and take it slow, because it was now a good blizzard out there.

The weather was INSANE!! It was foggy and snowy and just NO FUN! As we were driving along we saw a flashing sign saying "curvy roads next 10 miles"

As we approached the first curve, we slammed on the brakes and SLID...I kid you not the ice was about 1 inch thick and VERY slick!

Every time we came around a curve it was parking lot...there were semi's ALL over the road and they were in the way, therefore no one could get through. Se we would have to just sit there and wait for the semi to chain up so he could get out of the way...it was crazy! And this literally happened at every curve in the road. Emma was a trooper!! She was wonderful, seriously the best kid ever!! When we stopped the car we would bundle her up in her coat and her and daddy went and played in the snow...or she just played inside the car, she was just happy to be out of the car.

This picture here is the line up behind us, obviously the pictures don't do this experience justice, but it was the best we could do as it was dark.

This was the front...check out that ice!

We FINALLY made it out of this mountain pass...it took forever. We went about 1.7 miles in and hour and a half!! We were 120 miles from our destination when we arrived at 2:00 PM (pacific time) and we made it to our friends home in Middleton ID at 12:15 AM. Again, we left at 6:00 AM that morning. So we were in our car for 18 hours...the whole drive to Utah only takes 14.5 hours...so yes, 18 hours only to get to Middleton was A LONG TIME!!

The next day we left around 12 noon and got into Draper around 5. MUCH BETTER!! We are happy to be down here and enjoy the Holidays with family!!

Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year!

Love,

The Gordon-Smiths

Book of Mormon

So recently Wika and I finished reading the Book of Mormon, and we are currently reading Doctrine and Covenants. But once we finished reading the Book of Mormon, we decided we needed to not just read the book, but really study it. So every night, after we put Emma to bed Wika goes to the computer upstairs while I sit at the laptop downstairs and we do our "personal study." Wika came across this AWESOME website that really just gives a play by play of the Book. And I thought I would share it with you!

YOU'RE WELCOME!!

click HERE

*once you get to the website, click on "book of mormon commentary*

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!! It's very helpful, especially for when you reach those awesome Isaiah chapters!!

Happy Studying!

Halloween...

She came...

She saw...

She totally CONQUERED!

and...she was pretty stinking cute!

Date Night....???

Friday nights are "date nights" for Wika and myself. We really wanted to go out, however Emma had "other" plans in mind. She had come down with a pretty ugly cold and we didn't want to leave her for the night. She gets VERY needy when she is sick. So this is what we did instead....

We went to Quizno's picked up some sandwiches, came home and had a "picnic"
Emma LOVED it. We set it up in the family room so we could sit and eat and watch a movie. We watched "Fantastic Mr. Fox"...wierd movie, but Emma was entertained as it was animated so that was ok. I know it wasn't a typical date night for us, but really who wants "typical"??

Random Update...happenings in the GSmith household

I know you have all been dying wondering what we have been up to...well today is your lucky day! And boy is it a good one!

I recently was giving myself a pedicure...and of course who also wanted one??
Here is the final product!
I love little toes!

I think we may have found Emma's calling in life...the girl can trim hair!! Wika needed a haircut badly, and well she just wanted to help!! We let her have at it!

I am thinking it may be time to get Emma an ACTUAL doll. She just likes to put her "babies" to sleep. It's really quite cute...

She has to find them a pillow and blanket. She gets them all tucked in and then she sits next to them and while stroking their faces she sings to them. And the song is usually "I love to see the Temple" or even "Teach me to Walk"

SO PRECIOUS!!
(Tigger...and a dinky baby doll)

Pretty much, anything stuffed is a baby. And just an fyi...those babies sometimes join us for dinner where she will have to make sure they are fed as well!

( a moose-in her bed)

And last...October 11th was Canadian Thanksgiving...so I obviously had to celebrate with a Turkey!!I know it's a bit small, but when you are only feeding 5...it was plenty!

So delicious...looking forward to Thanksgiving #2 next month! It's great being

CANA-MERICAN!

OH...so this is Henry, my brother-in-law. He offered to make dessert for Thanksgiving...

this is what he made!!

SO HEAVENLY!

It's Banoffee Pie. (banana and toffee pie)

D.I.V.I.N.E!!

'nough said!

The End!

8 years ago...

I went on a date with this guy....

(*no this isn't a picture of our first date, but it's a good one)

He took me out for shrimp and oysters...yuck...and then he introduced to me Anime....

I didn't care for any of it! I mean...I didn't care for the food, or the movie...but my date?!?! He was pretty HOT! He was a definite keeper!

So 2 years after that "awesome" date, I married that man!

6 years down, and ETERNITY to go!! Yeah...I am pretty lucky!

Happy Anniversary to US!

Here we go UTAH here we go!!

So I know this comes as a big suprise, but we are pretty DIE HARD Utah fans!! I know, you must be shocked!! That's why when my WONDERFUL cousins played, what I would call the best, practical joke EVER on us, I about passed out. It really is that hard to see THAT much BLUE!!

So I wanted to make myself feel a bit better so I made these!

I took them to our ward party, to give them to our BYU devoted Bishop. As well as our friends the Araki's. I too wanted to wish them a very happy Independence Day as well!! :o)

Then once I made those cookies, I was feeling pretty good...but I still needed something else. So last weekend for the game against UNLV we got Emma all decked out in her Utah pride. And well, look at that face, she makes all those bad feelings of BYU blue, GO AWAY!!

We are SO excited for this Football season, can you tell??

GO UTES!