Christmas Eve & Christmas Morning

Christmas morning is so much fun with little ones...we were amazed everyone slept in until 7:30! We sure enjoyed a wonderful day!

Ammon got this great ball blowing toy...you can tell at first he wasn't too sure what to think, but he quickly decided it was lots of fun!Santa left wigs, gloves and wings for the girls to play dress-ups with...
they were both excited to get all glammed up.

Josh got a fun set of building cards...his first project was a pirate ship of course

I totally pirated these pictures from Steph...we had a really nice Christmas Eve with Mark's family; "A Night in Bethlehem." We all dressed up, had a wonderful "period" meal, a candlelight nativity, caroling with an accordian, and family togetherness...Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Bishop for a fun and meaningful evening!

Two Peas in a Pod

Ammon drinkin' with his bud...his cute little friend Will...they are only 7 days apart

To sit on Santa's Knee...

Isn't this one of the favorite things? We had several chances to visit Santa this year...but Mom only got pictures once (actually Jessica did...thanks Jess!) I love the look on Ella's face...doesn't that just say it all?

Oh Christmas Tree

I realized I never showed the final result...here it is, our first self-cut Christmas Tree. You can also notice our very favorite Christmas train that is always a highlight for the kids

The Best Snow on Earth

Mark and Josh went on their annual Warren Miller snowboarding day this week...Josh loved it and did great - they had beautiful fresh powder...Awesome!

The big 32

Another birthday has come and gone in this whirlwind week! There are pros and cons to having a birthday on a Sunday...pros are that I was with my family for a lot of the day. Cons are I had my normal Sunday responsibilities and I would have preferred a break! Oh well, it was a great day, & thank you for all the birthday wishes! Oh and Mark did spoil me...he stayed home from his meetings & woke me up to a breakfast of pumpkin waffles, and made me this delicious blueberry cheesecake - YUM!

My little dancers

So my girls had their Christmas dance show last Saturday...and they did so great! Although we had to battle the blizzards to get there, they looked adorable and sure had fun being on stage!

Holly's class did a tap dance to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and she lit up the stage - we were sitting way far away so the pics are a little fuzzy:

She's definitely not shy!

Ella's costume was a little angel and she did a ballet dance to a song about being an angel until after Santa comes and then being a little devil again...it was really cute! She's the second from the left in these first two pics:

Christmas Cookie Exchange

I hosted a Christmas Cookie Exchange with my sisters & nieces last weekend...I didn't get too many pictures because I was busy hostessing but we had a really fun time with the girls & got to eat lots of yummy food & cookies...what more could you ask for? This might have to be a new tradition...

Thanks Lisa too for helping pull it off!

The past few weeks...

Warning...this is a huge post! We have been so busy the past few weeks. We had a great Thanksgiving (no pics, sorry) and then we headed up to Midway for a week of quality family time. It was really fun to go swimming, play games, go on adventures, watch movies, lots of crafts, and have NO COMPUTER for a whole week. Here are lots of pictures...enjoy!

We hiked around to lots of hot pots in the area

Mark enjoying a little R&R

We worked on gingerbread houses while we were there...here is Mark & Em's unfinished colonioal house

This is Joshua's

Holly's and Ella's

My Dad came up for a few days and he definitely enjoyed some R&R!!!

Ammon enjoying some popcorn

Is there any more?

We hit the lanes in Heber...I had three strikes on my 10th frame!

Ella with a little help from the ramp

Josh learning the pro form

Holly had beginners luck and really did great!

Can't forget the yummy snacks!

Ella's very first bowling experience

What is Josh about to do? He looks naughty...

Warming up by the fire

The kids were very proud of their little villages

Counting down the days until Christmas!

Our friends the Kunics came up for the day...we did a few geocaches

We topped off a great week by heading up into the mountains to cut down our own Christmas tree...it was a perfect day with fresh snow & sunshine.Ammon even joined in on the fun

Mark and Josh in front of our tree

About to haul it home...
We were so proud that we picked the perfect size tree for our house...on the first cut!

Great Deal!

Right now crazy8.com has free shipping, %60 off tons of stuff, and you can also get $10 off a $30 purchase using the code: FREE10
I've been really happy with the things I've purchase from them before - have fun!