What the Smiths are up to...

I am tentative as I write this "Christmas Update." I never want to sound braggy or pretentious, which sometimes Christmas updates tend to be. I hope you don't see this as such. I just wanted to write about our year and what we are up to. I am sorry I do get a little mushy in parts!

We have had a fun year. We spend our extra time mostly at the beach. It is such a relaxing atmosphere. We can be found surfing, playing soccer or just hanging out there. We love South Carolina! Cedric is growing so much and this makes life interesting every day. He just turned 2. He is such a joy and great blessing. Of course, there are tough times, but that is what makes it so great. We feel so privileged that we have been given the opportunity to raise this special child. One of his favorite things to do is go the beach (in fact, almost every time we get in the car, he asks, "Going to the beach?" It makes us so sad when we have to say no). He is a total boy and loves to play with cars, balls and anything he can throw or kick. His language skills seem to be developing rapidly and we can understand more of his babble as the days pass. He loves to sing songs and read books with mommy. He is daddy's little copycat. He does everything that Tyson does. You can tell Tyson is Cedric's superhero (and deservedly so). :) It is so cute to watch them play and laugh with each other.


Tyson is doing really well. He loves his new school. The faculty has overall be wonderful to work with. He is getting ready to start a club with a fellow teacher. It is called the "Oceania Club." They are going to be teaching water skills, making surfboards, making Hawaiian-style outrigger boats, scuba diving, surfing, and basically teaching the kids to appreciate ocean life. It should be a really fun club and something the whole family will be involved in. He is the second counselor in the Bishopric and really enjoys getting to know people through that avenue as he is serving the Lord. It has been a great opportunity.

I am loving life with my two guys! Just being with them brings joy to my heart. I am still doing the medical transcriptioning. I just got a little promotion. I guess it should really be called a title change. I am in the head transcriptionist of an account. No extra money involved, just a little more responsibility. I guess I am not really sure how great that is! I am grateful to have this stay at home job. I am a Young Woman Advisor and love my girls. Our youth are so awesome and I am always so impressed by them.

Lately we have been spending a lot of time running. We are currently training for a marathon; 26.2 miles of fun! Yeah right. It is on Valentines day. We both did 14 miles on Saturday and that was the longest we have ever run. The training is going well and I am confident we will be ready for the marathon when it gets here. It sure is tough though. As Tyson puts it, we will be retired from marathon running after this one!

We have an appointment on December 30th to meet with LDS Family Services to turn in all of our paperwork to adopt another child. We are so excited! It could takes years for it to happen, but we are excited to get the process started.


I would like to end this post with a quote from President Monson that so beautifully describes the Christmas Spirit, "Giving, not getting, brings to full bloom the Christmas spirit. Enemies are forgiven, friends remembered, and God obeyed. The spirit of Christmas illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world’s busy life and become more interested in people than things. To catch the real meaning of the “spirit of Christmas,” we need only drop the last syllable, and it becomes the “Spirit of Christ.”

Thank you to all of you, our wonderful family and friends, who give so freely and enrich our life!