Christmas Tree

As promised, here is the Christmas tree at the Metoyer's house in Melbourne.

Regina and Daniel Boyd Christmas Photos

Alas, Regina and I do not have a tree of our own this year. I have toyed with the idea of getting one after Christmas, putting it up, and leaving it up until later in the year, but I am still unsure. For now, I will post pictures of our Christmas last year, in Zurich, Switzerland, and Roma. They have some pretty nice Christmas trees. I will also post a picture of the Metoyer's Christmas tree as soon as I can, since we are at their house for the first two days of Christmas.

The first several photos will be of a Christmas tree in the train station in Zurich. It was massive, and decorated with thousands of star shaped Swarovski crystal's. Quite beautiful, indeed.













































This next photo is the downtown area of Zurich, all lit up for Christmas.























And finally, the Nativity seen in St. Peters square.




















I apologize for this blog being a bit messy looking. I played with it for a while, and just couldn't get it to do what I wanted. We love you all, Merry Christmas!
Dan and Regina

Smith Christmas Tree

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree. The boys are so big and the tree is so small!


Looking forward to seeing some of yours! (If you are not doing a Christmas tree this year, you could post another Christmas themed picture if you want.)

It's been a while so...

I thought I'd post what's happening in Good Old South Carolina.

Ellie has been busy training Nava, and she's doing fabulous in her obedience and agility lessons. She still struggles to balance the demands of her school work with the added responsibility of another pet to care for.





Blake has been doing very well in his school this year, as long as he has something to motivate him, usually computer time. He is very strong in all his subjects, especially math and reading. Like his mother, his weakness is his handwriting, but he's coming along in that as well. According to his Doctor poor handwriting going along with ADHD. Since he's doing well in school we will continue to manage his ADHD with out medication.

Joseph is finally using the toilet! Just last week I told him we were out of Pull Ups and he woudl have to wear underwear and he is actually making it to the toilet. He still wears a pull up to bed and at quite time, but this is huge for him! He still loves to play games, do puzzles and be read to.
Here he is modeling his new hat and mittens. I have never had a more grateful recipient of my knitting.

Anthony becomes more independent every day, but he still loves to cuddle. He has figured out how to push chairs up tot the counter, so he has a whole new world to explore. I do miss him being little but it's nice that he can play independently for short periods. It gives me some much needed one on one with the bigger kids to work on their school work.

Christmas Trees Anyone?

I have a fun idea...

Let's all post a picture of our Christmas tree. And if you can, get you or your kids in the picture. I'll post mine tomorrow so I can include my kids.

I can't wait to see what everyone's trees look like.

Greeting from Sunny Florida

We had some cold weather last week, I had a sprinkler running in the garden all night to keep the vegetables from freezing, He are a couple of pictures of Maria and Anna playing in the garden.

Merry Christmass and God Bless you all.

Grandpa Carl

A Few Early Christmas Gifts at the Smith House

This year, I wasn't quite sure what to do about Christmas gifts for my kids. I was especially inspired by the video posted by Dan earlier this month. I've talked to the boys about the idea of giving money to the needy instead of getting a lot of gifts and they seemed fine with it; in fact I am not even sure they realize that Christmas for so many people is all about presents.

There were a few things they needed so I figured that those things would be their gifts, along with some stocking stuffers.

The boys needed some winter boots and since they are outside wearing them in the snow right now, I can't provide a picture but you can see them here. I usually buy boots used or on sale in the spring but having not gotten around to it this year, I had to buy some new. I am hoping these will double as rain boots in the spring and summer. They are nice because you can take the liner out.

We also got them some nice flannel sheets from LL Bean:


I haven't finished making the bottom bunk yet but I wanted to take a picture before it was made so you could see how cute they are. In case you can't see the pattern, here is a close up:

Christmas Trees!

This is a very cute little wooden nativity scene that we just got:


Thomas has a way of confiscating things that were meant for everyone and making them his own. So these were on top of the piano, with the other children's nativity scene but now they are on Thomas's little dresser. I guess we didn't need two on top of the piano anyway. He also took the manger for the small baby Jesus that was in the hallway and made that his own too. I can't complain; I guess there could be worse things ;)

And lastly, this was the real splurge; Paul's and my Christmas gift to each other:


And with the doors open: (I love how you can see all the produce!)


This refrigerator has been a long time coming. The previous one was leaking from somewhere and was sitting in a puddle, the shelves in the doors were being held on with duck tape, and it was really not big enough to house all of the produce that my husband consumes.

The first problem is that it's so nice, I don't think we'll be able to part with it when we move; we'll have to take it with us.

The other problem is that it is so much nicer than everything else in our somewhat run-down kitchen that it looks a little out of place. But I've been thinking that I spend more time in the kitchen than any other room in the house and I should start giving it some more attention...

And this is just a cute picture of Andre sitting on the counter... he was an early Christmas present last year.


I hope everyone has a blessed last week of Advent and a very wonderful Christmas!

Maria is now a teenager

Maria had a couple of friends over this weekend to help her celebrate her birthday. Here is a picture of Maria and her cake, and of the girls and the 2 new kittens

Dad

Student Comment

Hello everyone,

I was just reading the results of a survey the students took, and one of them said something really kind. I wanted to post it to share a little bit of what makes my job rewarding.

"Mr. Boyd - By far one of the best teachers I've had. Very hardworking, he knows what is right and wrong, and helps the students as best he can. The class is extremely fun and engaging thanks to his great teaching attitude. He strives to help the best out of the student's potential even when they aren't willing. Mr. Boyd deserves to be teacher of the week for a

school year!"

Love,
Dan

Advent Video

Hello beloved family,

I just came across this video, and wanted to share it with you. I think if we embraced it's message, we would have a much more meaningful advent and Christmas.

Here are some of the family portraits. I don't know why they are so small on the blog. But to see many many more pictures you can check out my facebook album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030322&id=61900166&l=ef9fe7443a

Some Favorite Blogs

I am thrilled with all our blogging activity; thank you to everyone for participating and for taking the time to write and to post pictures. I am really enjoying hearing from all of you like this; I hope you are all enjoying it too.

I'm sure this is obvious, but I have a fascination with blogs and I wanted to share a few of my favorites with you. Actually, I only read three regularly, and I don't even read them very often, but here they are:

Elizabeth Foss, a home schooling mom of nine, got me started on blog reading.
She also has a column in the Arlington Catholic Herald and has written a few books.

I also LOVE Conversion Diary. Jennifer Fulwiler always makes me laugh. She is also writing a book about her conversion story, from atheism to Catholicism, and I think she is now a regular contributor to Envoy. This is one of my favorite posts....

Lastly, Shower of Roses is a really nice blog because Jessica includes so many beautiful pictures and has lots of great ideas for celebrating the liturgical year.

Do any of you have a favorite blog (or blogs)? Do any of you have your own blog? Please share.

Our New Dog

By now I'm sure everyone know that we have a new dog. She's exactly what Ellie was looking for as a competition dog. However she is still adjusting to living with a family with small boys. She came from a show home and had minimal socialization and is nervous around new people, especially men and children.


I think with careful training and good socialization she will become a great family dog. She has already accepted the rough play of Joseph and Anthony and will now let Matt approach her. However I don't think she will ever be as nice as Sugar, our Human Society Rescue.

Just a Reminder

I hope this is readable. I just screen printed it.

Backyard Projects

Andrew has been hard at work everyday with some project in the back yard, whether it is installing a new pre-hung door to the garage, puting up an exercise bar between two trees, removing stumps, laying mulch, tearing up the back deck, digging out the ground for a new patio, fixing his boat trailer, or fixing the fence after having three trees taken down.

Philip has been loving playing outside with daddy all day and getting terribly dirty as well. I guess that is what little boys are supposed to do, though! Here are some back yard views:

L'Chaim

Hello family, not only is this my first attempt to post on this blog, it's my first to ever blog from a smart phone. Sorry if anything doesn't turn out.

Recently Tristan and I have been trying to eat healthier, but also, more interesting foods. For dinner yesterday, Tristan made a kind of salad called Nicoise. It had boiled eggs, green beens, potatoes, tomatoes, feta cheese, and kalimata olives. Quite tasty!


We're also trying to eat a lot more fruit, as I'm sure you can see!

Test

If you read this blog, please leave a comment :)
(Just a test to see if anyone reads The Boyd Family Blog.)

Let me clarify...

I made a hasty and impulsive decision to get some cats; adult cats from a home with no kids. Below is a note I wrote for Paul so that he could know what to say to the lady who gave them to us when he calls her.

No Pets at the Smith Home

Hi Ana,

We’re very sorry but the Kitties are not working out here.

They were very aggressive with us last night and even went after us a couple of times.

We are not comfortable having them around our kids and especially our baby.

Do you want them back?

We would be happy to bring them back to you but we can’t even get close them. We could try to get them into a box .

We can be somewhat flexible if you can’t come today.

Thank you so much for driving all the way out here to bring them to us; I am so sorry it’s not working out.

Thank you, Good bye.

As promised, here are some pictures of where Elizabeth and I are living. The brightness is a little off in some of the pictures--sorry.

Here is what you see when you walk in. Mom and Dad might notice the fish tank is different--we upgraded and I built the stand and built the (LED!) light for it. The kitchen is off to the right in this photo:

Turning to the right you see the kitchen:

Once in the kitchen, looking to the left towards the front door (and bar stools):

Turning ninety degrees to the right you see the second half wall of the kitchen, into the living room. Notice the chic magnetic knife bars.

Then we have two pictures of the living room: Fish tank & Fireplace combo, and then our couch. I don't have a computer desk, so the coffee table works. In fact, I'm using that coffee table to prop my feet up right now.

I'll withhold a picture of the bathroom--not that it's dirty, it's just fairly unremarkable. That's pretty much it, except for the bedroom, which features little more than a closet and an uber-cushy craigslist bed. In fact, everything in the apartment came from craigslist! One of Dallas' perks is its excellent craigslist, man-o-man do I love it!

Best,

T