Isaac is 8 and it's a Chess Themed Party!

I can't believe Isaac is 8 already! It seems like time has just flown by and he's grown up so fast!  

After I had the cupcakes all set up and done Isaac wanted to move the "chess" cupcakes to make it look like a real game was being played. If you haven't guessed...chess was the theme of the party. 

With Isaac's birthday being so close to christmas we've always just had a family party. I've always promised the kids that they can have a friend party when they turn 8! So, we chose chess as the theme for the party because it's Isaac's favorite game and went with it! We borrowed my friend's HUGE chess board for the party! It was a huge hit!

Dad and Abbie blew up a few balloons but, with all the christmas decorations we kept the birthday party decorations to a minimum. 

We played guess who and chess at the same time. While the boys were learning the moves of each chess peice they got to play another game with it. When a chess peice was captured, the team got to take a guess to figure out the other's guess-who person. It was perfect because the boys learned the general rules of chess without having to get someone in check mate!(might have taken them a little too long) Then we played don't eat pete! Each of the boys took three turns! They were having such a fun time playing this game. 

The boy's expression when they tried to eat "pete" was so hilarious! I had only planned to play one, maybe two rounds but, the boys wanted to play more, so we played three rounds of "Don't eat Pete!" 

Then we played the chocolate, oven-mitt, dice game. If you got doubles, you put on the oven mitts and tried to eat the candy bar out of the wrapper. I was surprised that everyone got at least one chance at the chocolate bar since it's all by chance of "doubles" on the dice! 

Isaac was excited about the last activity which was to create your own chess peice. The boy's imaginations of a what they thought a cool chess peice looked like was endless....they had everything they needed to create a marshmallow, chess peice with all the fixin's! 

It was fun to see the boy's creativity! 

Some boy's had extra "eyes" to see other opponents moves or special cannons to blast the other peices when they were captured. So creative! 

This was Isaac's mythical chess peice. 

Some boy's chess peices had all sorts of powers to take other chess peices! 

Isaac blowing out his candles on his "chess" cupcake board. 

Opening presents...the boy's knew him well...he loved all of his presents! 

Abbie asked Daddy to re-lite her cupcake...she chose the "queen" for her cupcake. 

Of course, when Abbie had her re-lit, Isaac wanted to blow out a candle again! Too funny! 

The boy's each took their chess peice creations home with them to enjoy later! 

This cake is from the family party! We had this on his acutual birthday! Grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and cousins were able to come celebrate! We had dinner...Isaac's favorite..PIZZA! We had it with an assortment of his favorite fruits: mangos, bananas, clementine oranges, raspberries and a fresh fruit dip. YUM! 

Then we opened presents and had cake and ice cream! Isaac got a new suit from mom and dad for his upcoming baptism! He's going to look sharp! 

Isaac, we love you so much! You bring such happiness, excitement and pure joy to our home! We love you and you are the best big brother! Happy 8th birthday!

Decorating the Christmas Tree!

The kids were really into decorating with me for Christmas this year. It made it a lot easier to have the kids help. When it was time to hang all the ornament balls. I sat on the floor and added the little wire hooks while the kids would wait anxiously for the next ball to be ready. 

The kids had a stool and a chair to make sure the ornaments were distributed properly. This is a BIG difference from year's past when only a few limbs were decorated heavily. You can see me on the floor putting the hooks on the balls. 

The tree is 9 feet tall so the kids started to climb on the tall tv cabinet to get the ornaments to the top. It was really fun seeing the kids distribute the ornaments so carefully! 

The kids decorating the tree. 

We set the timer on the camera on the tripod and took a family photo of us putting the star on the tree. Abbie made sure that I was by her...she's attatched to my hip lately. Too cute! 

This photo should have been before the last one because this is Reed putting the star on the tree. He had to stand on a chair to reach it....the tree went clear to the ceiling! Beautiful! 

The kids making their silly faces with the finished tree! Love you all! 

After the kids went to bed, I took some photos on the shutter setting so I could get the beautiful glow of the tree captured on film. It is so gorgeous all lit up at night. 

I love the tall slender tree we chose this year. It was so fun hiking together as a family on the mountain side to pick the PERFECT tree. It fit perfectly in it's spot. I love the glow of a lit christmas tree this time of year. It's one of my favorite things to do. Turn out all the lights except the glow of the christmas tree and decorations. It creates such a beautiful sight! So pretty and calming!

Cutting our Christmas Tree

Cutting our Christmas tree was really fun this year. We haven't had this much snow in years when we have gone hunting for a tree. It's a good thing we had our 4-wheel drive vehicle because it was over a foot of snow on the road to get back into where the trees were located. 

Everyone staying in the trail from the person in front of them. It was REALLY deep snow! The kids had to follow adults otherwise they could hardly move. 

Ashley and kids were the first to find their tree! I told them it was beginner's luck!! It took us a little while longer to find our perfect tree! 

Kai helped grandpa cut their family tree down. 

Proud tree cutters! 

Mom and Dad found their tree. A tall slender tree...perfect for their living room! 

We were the last to find our tree. We found three others that looked awesome too but, they were over the cutting limit. So we kept searching until we found this beautiful tree. It was taller than my ceiling which makes it perfect to have extra pine bows for decorating. 

Isaac helping Dad cut the tree! The kids each get a turn cutting a few times on the tree. 

Kaden taking his turn cutting the christmas tree. This was the best view I could get. The snow was so deep they had to dig the snow out from around the tree to get to where they needed to cut the tree. 

Abbie getting her turn to cut the tree! 

Reed finishing cutting the tree. 

The boys getting ready to drag the tree back in the deep snow back to the truck. 

Our tree cut with love! 

The kids expect every year to be able to ride the tree down the hill to the truck. We took a short video and then the ride was over...the kids are getting too big! 

Draggin the trees back to the truck. 

The last little hill was the steepest. 

Ashley and I were draggin their tree back and we turned a corner between some trees and the next thing I know...Ashley is in the snow. I grabbed the camera and snap a photo. Good times!! 

While the men were tying down the trees my kids made snow angels. 

Isaac's snow angel. 

Abbie made quite a few snow angels! She made one for every member of our family. So sweet!! 

Finally Kaden joined in and made his own snow angel. 

It has become tradition to cut our own tree. They are fresh and smell great! The adventure of finding the perfect tree is the best part! Another great Christmas tree cutting adventure!