Ashley's 8th Birthday

 We celebrated Ashley's Birthday last weekend. On Friday, I took a birthday treat in for her to share with her class. They sang to her and another boy whose birthday happens to be the same day as hers.

Then on Saturday we opened our home up for another friend party (two parties in two weeks was a little much- We hope we don't have to do that again). It was a dog themed party as anyone that knows Ashley could probably guess. We served "dog bones..."

"Fetch Sticks..."

 and "Pup cakes."

 These were my favorite. I loved how they turned out.

 The kids got to make dog ears, dog collars, and dog noses. Then we played a bunch of doggie games. Besides the noise level, the girls playing on the stairs(apparently that was their doggie hideout), and the wrestling boys, it was a lot of fun. Here are the cute guests.

Then on Sunday we celebrated as a family. I barely got the cake frosted before eating it, so it wasn't fancy.

Ashley is such a sweet girl. She is very kind hearted and full of energy. She loves dogs and her family. We are so lucky to have her as part of our family

Because he is Cute

 I guess Tyler wanted to disguise himself a few times.

Alyssa's Birthday Party

 Alyssa was able to talk us into doing a friend party for her birthday this year because apparently the 10th birthday is a big birthday being two digits and all. Alyssa doesn't like cake, so Danny brought home a chocolate fountain from work and we went with a chocolate theme. Here is the birthday girl before the guests arrived.

We started off with a guess how many M&M's are in the jar game(we also did chocolate covered raisins). Second game was one where they got to taste four different chocolate bars and try to guess what it was. Next we had a paper full of scrambled chocolates that they got to try to unscramble.  After that, we did 2 minute to win it style games(an Oreo stack and the one where you have to get the Oreo from you forehead to your mouth without using hands). Then there was a relay race where they had to move a whopper from one bowl to another using chopsticks. Alyssa was the champion at that game. The last game was one where they had to roll doubles and then put on a hat, gloves, and mittens and try to open and cut a giant chocolate bar using a fork and knife. Here are a couple of pictures of the girls during the games.

 After games, they got to visit the chocolate fountain. We did strawberries, marshmallows, pretzels, and rice crispy treats.

 Everyone had a lot of fun and the chocolate fountain was delicious. Here is the last picture of Alyssa before she turned ten.

We celebrated her actual birthday by going to the Japanese steak house for the third year in a row.

Alyssa's Field Trip

 Alyssa had a field trip to Salt Lake City mid December. I was able to go with her. First, they went to Temple Square. We saw the visitor center and the Tabernacle.

We also went to look at this little log cabin that was across the street from the Tabernacle.

 Then we got to tour the Beehive House. They have been studying Brigham Young in class.

 This was our little group. Pretty easy to keep track of them.

After temple square, we got to tour the Capitol Building. It is a beautiful building, but the kids were all so tired of walking by this point that it was a little rough getting them through the tour. Here is Alyssa's class(at least everyone that was there that day).

Christmas Festivities

I really wish I would have taken the time to post these pictures as they happened, but December is just busy. Here are some of the fun things we did during the month of December.

We went to see the Tree of Life.

It was so pretty, but super cold that night, so we didn't stay long to enjoy it.

The girls had their choir concert. We learned that night that even though Ashley has a really low voice, she can sing right on pitch. Alyssa did great with her solo, as well. We were excited that Daddy was able to slip away from work on the busiest day of the year in order to attend the concert. 

And Alyssa was excited that her best friend was there.

Santa was kind enough to send us an Elf on the Shelf this year(thanks to Alyssa's early letter to him requesting an Elf). We named him Peter and the kids sure loved finding him each day. We had a sneak peak at his date night on this specific day. Who knew that Ladybug Girl was his girlfriend. Ashley added the other friends in later that day.

Camden mastered sitting up this month. I thought this picture was cute.

The kids got new jammies and the girls got new robes on Christmas Eve.

I thought this picture was funny. I guess Tyler was a little too close to Camden.

We woke up on Christmas morning to the most snow we had seen in one storm since we have lived here. We're guessing about 15 inches.

After presents, Danny finally got to break in his snow blower that we got for him almost 2 years ago.

Here is our modified version of the Miner Family stair picture. We didn't trust Tyler to hold Camden in the usual pose.

And here are the kids in front of the loot.

Alyssa got to go to a party at her friends house on New Years Eve. The party ended at 10, but she wanted to stay up until midnight anyways. Danny was nice enough to wait it out with her. I went to bed at 10 and didn't even hear the fireworks going off at midnight. We are looking forward to the upcoming year and the fun things we have planned. The first big thing being Ashley's Baptism in early Feb.