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.

And Here Comes Christmas

 On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Alyssa and Ashley got to ride on a float in the Lehi City Santa Parade. They were on the float with their choir and then got to sing on these risers after the parade. It was really cold that day, so we waited with the boys in our car until the parade got to us.

On Friday, I took the kids to see Santa at the outlets. He was very nice, but Tyler was not a fan. He didn't cry, he just didn't look very happy on his lap. Later that day, we went to the Festival of Trees. I didn't get any pictures while we were there, but the kids loved looking at all of the trees. They also loved the fudge that I bought them when we needed a break from walking.
Yesterday, we had another opportunity to meet Santa. Edge Homes was hosting a Christmas event (and everything was FREE). They got to meet Santa, get a picture with him and Mrs. Clause, pick out a toy or candy, eat donuts, drink hot chocolate(which they served in actual mugs), and take home a balloon. The hot chocolate, by the way, was like drinking melted chocolate. So good.

 We are looking forward to more Christmas fun to come in the next 18 days. We are especially ready to get through the next week and a half so that we can have Danny around again.

Thanksgiving and Ashley's Devotional

We had a nice Thanksgiving. We felt fortunate to have my parents visiting for most of the week. They made a last minute decision to come to Utah for Thanksgiving so they could visit with a friend of theirs who has not been given much time to live. While they were in town, we took them to a BYU Basketball game with us. Apparently they are good luck because I won a $25 gift card for showing my Wells Fargo App on my phone and then my parents were given a Papa Johns Pizza from Cosmo for being the loudest fans(we're pretty sure it was the guys sitting behind them that helped win that one so they shared some of the pizza with them). Camden also made it on the baby cam. Our seats are right behind the basket on the front row, so that may be part of the reason for our good luck. Here are most of our kids enjoying the game with my parents. You can't see Alyssa, but she is right behind Tyler. 

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Danny's parents house and it was delicious.

The week before Thanksgiving was Ashley's school Devotional. She was chosen out of all the second graders to play the xylophone during one of the songs. She was so excited to be chosen and did a wonderful job of it. This is my first time trying this, but here is the you tube link: https://youtu.be/J8vChT0MYkE

I love the music in the 2nd grade devotional at their school. The last song they sing is called "A Chosen Generation." I truly feel like my kids are so much stronger than I when it comes to resisting temptation and doing what is right. They are chosen to grow up in a time when there are terrorist attacks and shootings and when the sanctity of marriage is being attacked. I pray that they will continue to make good choices and live up to the responsibilities that they have been entrusted with by being born in this time.

 

Happy Halloween, in December

 I meant to post these right after Halloween, and then life happened. Anyways, our kids were a racoon, Marshall from Paw Patrol, a pirate, and a teddy bear.

 This was our favorite Halloween decoration this year.

 And here are their pumpkins.

Family Pictures

We had a family photo shoot about a month ago. Here are some of our favorites.

 

Having great pictures is easy when the kids are so cute.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

Our kids have had the opportunity to go to more than one pumpkin patch this year. We took them to Cornbelly's last week. Then Tyler got to join Gawbie's preschool class at Hee Haw's on Thursday.

He loved the big white slide, the petting zoo, and picking out his pumpkin.

Just kidding, here is his real pumpkin.

Then we were invited back to Cornbelly's for no charge, so we took advantage of the invite. Tyler loved the minion. He kept calling him "silly guy."

On Friday, I took the girls to the farm right across the street from our neighborhood to pick out pumpkins for carving. I took this picture of the boys while we were waiting. I tried to get Camden to sit on the ground propped up against a bunch of pumpkins, but he wouldn't relax long enough for me to take the picture, so this is as good as it gets.

Now we just have to figure out when we are going to have time to carve our pumpkins before Saturday, especially since our kids are taking turns being sick right now.

Spelling Bee

Alyssa was in her school spelling bee again this year. She qualified to be in the school spelling bee by winning her class spelling bee. This year she was in the senior spelling bee so she was competing against kids all the way up to the 8th grade. Being in 4th grade made her one of the youngest competitors. As a result, we didn't really expect her to go very far. She did amazing. Here she is waiting for the spelling bee to start. She was chosen to go 6th out of 26(or 28 depending on whether you ask Alyssa or Danny).

She made it to the top nine, spelling 6(I think) words correctly. The highlight of the spelling bee was when she was asked to spell the word "mazel tov." Here is a video, but the word has 2 different spellings and she spelled it both ways for the judges. Little smarty pants.

We are so proud of her and openly admit that she can spell better than any of us. We have the feeling that she will have a few more spelling bees in her future. (I think that secretly she hopes to go to the national spelling bee someday.  We'll just have to see.)