For those of you who have been eager to see Sarah’s new car, here it is!
Isn’t it so cute? It’s a 2012 Mazda 3 and gets 39 miles to the gallon! (Plus, we got an amazing deal on it.)
We’re very proud of Sarah for saving her money for nine years and paying for over half of this car on her own. Although she doesn’t have her license yet, her plan is to try for it while Nathan and Meagan are in town. In the meantime, she is happily tooling around town with one of us in tow.
Here are Nathan and Steve at the airport getting Noah strapped into his car seat. Two good looking fellows!
And here is the strapee after a long day of travel.
The biggest change that has taken place since the Florida Folks’ arrival has been that my usually somewhat tidy house is no longer tidy—somewhat, or otherwise. Instead, peace and order have been unstintingly usurped by a certain child. (The Duplos he’s playing with were ones Sarah played with as a child.)
My morning Bible reading and cup of tea are enhanced a bottle and snuggle time.
But you don’t hear me complaining! Peace and order are highly overrated, especially when compared to the joy of having such a cute mess-maker present in our lives.
Saturday night, we cooked our traditional pancake dinner before putting up the tree.
Noah and Summer kept busy striding purposefully around and acting as miniature overseers. Noah strolled one way and Summer the other—both keeping the perimeter secure and making sure that all their minions were working hard.
See? It worked! You’ve never seen harder working minions in your life!
Sunday after church, we had some people over to help celebrate Meagan’s 27th birthday. There were nine adults, six kids under the age of nine, and one dog. Good times!
Here’s Meagan of the beautifully expressive face. (I got her the blouse from a thrift store; don’t you love it? I’m so happy my daughter-in-law loves thrift stores as much as I do/)
One of the families we invited has four daughters who are athletic. The older three girls take dance and gymnastics and the youngest one . . . well, she’s not too shabby either. 
(And by the way, if you see any photos from our church programs featuring a solo dancer, it’s probably Elizabeth. She is amazing.)
Sunday morning, the three sisters did a special for us after their mom said a few words.There is nothing more precious than children singing—especially at Christmas.
The other family we had over for the birthday lunch was our associate pastor and her husband. They have a 3-month old baby and Meagan (AKA the Baby Whisperer) couldn’t wait to get her hands on him—especially since she is in the process of producing a brand new baby herself!
Right before we sat down to eat, we grabbed a few family photos.
(The tree looks a wee bit bare because we only had time to do the lights on Saturday; we added ornaments last night.)
Everything was going along swimmingly in the picture-taking department until Steve picked up Summer.She promptly licked my face which caused me to make a terrible, awful face.
And the bad news is that . . .
once you see a picture like this, you can’t UNSEE it.
Oh well. Merry Christmas anyway– from all of us to all of you!
Congrats on the car, Sarah! You’ll love it! I had a Mazda 3 for 10 years and it was a wonderful car! I hope you all have a very happy Christmas and New Year!
Gayle,
it’s great got know that you had a good experience with your Mazda 3. Hope Sarah can run hers just as long!
I love your family pictures! Sarah, congratulations on your first car and a super car it is. I in the looking stage myself. Noah has grown and is cuter in each photo. Merry Christmas to each and every one of you! And Happy Birthday Meagan!
ncbev
Good luck on your car-looking. And Merry Christmas to you, too!
What a great car! What a fabulous family! Merry Christmas to all of you!
Stefanie–thanks! To you, too.
Beautiful car Sara. There’s just something about buying your first car! A blessed and Merry Christmas to all of the Smith family.
Sharyn,
You’re right. Nothing can ever match that experience of first car ownership!
Congrats to Sarah on the car – very nice!! And very impressive she was able to pay for over half of it from savings! As always, thank you for sharing pictures of your beautiful family! Merry Christmas!
SueEllen,
Merry Christmas to you, too. And thanks for being happy with us about Sarah’s new car! 🙂
Merry Christmas!!! Enjoy your joyous celebrations and family togetherness! !
Jenna,
Family togetherness is the best kind!
Love the car Sarah! Good luck on getting your license, very exciting! Then you get to take that beautiful license photo shot 🙂
Merry Christmas to you all!!!!
Lesley,
Oh dear. Don’t even bring up the subject of the beautiful license shot! I’ve never gotten a good one yet!
Love your car Sarah. Happy Birthday from Canada Meagan. Love the family photos and how there is a little splash of Red on everybody. Enjoy the time with the little one and take lots of pictures. We still have a huge toy box of “Thomas the Tank Engine” toys in our basement just waiting for a little one to love as much as my little ones loved.
Mel,
Noah is a huge Thomas fan; I got him a couple of the books for Christmas.
Love the car! Love the owner! Lover the owner’s family! Love the pictures of the owner and her family! Love this post! Do you feel the love or what?
love deb 🙂
Deb,
And we love you!
Love the car & the pics are beautiful! Meghan is missing the birthday hat???? Can’t wait to see the pic of Sarah driving off to Colige alone for the first time! Happy Holidays!
Jodi,
When Sarah drives off to college, Steve will have to take the picture because I’ll be crying!
good looking car.
what’s on the pancakes?
I like Meagan’s hair.
ah, Summer, not quite the reaction you expected with your kiss.
Mrs. Pam,
Some of the pancakes had pecans cooked in since Steve and I are huge fans of pecan pancakes!
Sarah, your car is so cute! It’s just the type I imagined you would get. 🙂 Happy (belated) birthday Meagan! Where was that famous birthday hat?!?!?
Becky, I know what you mean about the way the tidiness vanishes….Lol. I agree though, that it is all totally worth it when those sweet little mess makers are around. I wouldn’t have it any other way! Get in all the hugs and snuggles that you can.
Merry Christmas to you all!!
LeeAnne,
I’ll trade tidiness for a toddler any ol’ day!
missed Megan in the Smith birthday hat. Grandma – I know you are loving your little one
Becky,
Since Meagan’s birthday celebration was split up over two days, I got completely confused and forgot the birthday had altogether. I told her yesterday we would have to have pose in the hat, just for the record. 🙂